Checkmate
by KATTALNUVA
Summary: Sequel to Son of Dracula. Yugi and friends are targeted of a league of super rich gamblers led by a man called only Checkmate. Can Yugi and his friends survive this deadly game? Guest staring... for the first time ever... ME!
1. Would you like to play?

**Introduction**

It's been three months since the defeat of Prince Vlad, and many things have changed. Yugi continues to push himself to the very limit to improve his dueling skills, Joey and Mai are now living together, and Serenity has begun a relationship of her own.

But the small period of peace Yugi and his friends have enjoyed is about to come crashing to an end. Seto Kaiba has been driving himself insane in his ambition to dethrone the King of Games, but Kaiba is the least of their worries. An underground league of super rich gamblers that play with people's lives, led by a man who calls himself only Checkmate, has begun to move in on the game of Duel Monsters, and they would like nothing more than to see Yugi Moto fall. Can Yugi and his friends survive Checkmate's deadly game?

**Greetings Weevil Underwood**

**I understand that you have a huge bone to pick with Yugi Moto. I can help you. It's about time this little do-gooder got his long over due rude awakening. If you are interested, then please make your way to the White King, the old game shop in Domino's sister city, tonight at midnight. Go to the door at the back and knock three times. The password is Little Pig.**

**Burn this when you're done. I'll be waiting.**

**A friend.**

"Well… this looks like the place."

From the outside, the White King looked like any other game shop with a large oversized chess piece on the roof, but there was something dark about the place's atmosphere. It was on a dark deserted street. Weevil wouldn't normally go to a place like this in the middle of the night, but he was willing to do anything to get his revenge on Yugi Moto.

"Okay… The note said to go to the back."

Weevil made his way into the alley behind the shop. The door at the back looked like it was made of metal. He knocked on it three times, then much to his surprise, a video camera came out of the wall and looked at him.

"What's the password?"

"Little pig, let me in."

"You got it… Just push the door open."

Weevil started pulling on the handle, but to no avail.

"I said push!"

"Oh, sorry."

Weevil pushed against the door and it flew open. He found himself in an elevator that instantly started to go down and down and down.

"How deep is this thing?"

When Weevil finally reached the bottom the wall on the other side of the elevator opened. He found himself face to face with Rex Raptor and Bandit Keith.

"What the heck are you guys doing here?"

"What are we doing here? What about you?" said Rex

"Relax boys… You were all invited."

"Who said that? Show yourself!" said Keith.

"Calm down Mr. Howard. Don't you all remember what the letters said? I'm your friend."

"Howard? Your last name is Howard?" said Rex.

"Hey, shut it dino-breath! Dissing me is going to be hazardous to your health! And as for you, whoever you are, show yourself now or I'll…"

"Is that anyway to thank me for breaking you out of the insane asylum? Nevertheless I will show myself to you."

A huge spotlight lit up the room. Rex, Weevil, and Keith all found themselves standing on what looked like a giant chess board. The tiles were transparent and there was a huge pool beneath. But even more interesting was the man standing on the other side of the board. He was dressed head to toe in body armor that was white, gold, black, and silver. He was also wearing a cape that was white on the inside and black on the outside.

"Who the hell are you?" asked Rex "Some kind of renaissance carny?"

The man just laughed.

"Not even close… I am Checkmate… I trust you've heard of me Mr. Howard?"

"Wait a minute… You're… you're the head of an underground league of gamblers!"

"Not just any gamblers… the richest gamblers in the world!"

More lights came on. Keith, Rex, and Weevil found themselves in a room full of people, all dressed in simple masks and fancy clothes.

"Okay… So what do you want from us?" asked Keith.

"As you know, my friends and I are gamblers. Can a gold medal Olympic track runner outrun a panther? How long can a human being last when he's being burned alive? Can the smartest man alive find a way out of a no win scenario death trap? Now something else has caught our interest… Can even the King of Games… the great Yugi Moto… fall and fall hard?"

"Do you want those answered in specific order?"

"I would like all of you to help me see if little Yugi and his friends can be beaten, and in return… I will help tip the odds in your favor."

Checkmate snapped his fingers. Instantly three of his goons dressed in similar colored armor went up to Rex, Weevil, and Keith, and presented them with a box full of cards.

"WOW! Count me in!" said Rex.

"Once I'm done with him I'll be the new King of Games!" said Weevil.

"You got yourself a deal." said Keith.

"Very good… but you do know… this is more than about rare cards."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I've selected you all because you all have motives, something that fuels you to take down your opponent. Mr. Underwood, you were once a regional Duel Monster's champion… but that was ages ago… You were defeated in the first round at the Duelist Kingdom Tournament by Yugi Moto, then at Battle City you were defeated by his best friend Joseph Wheeler. Ever since then you've been the butt of everyone's jokes… Mr. Raptor, you were a regional runner up, you lasted longer in the Duelist Kingdom tournament than your friend here, but then you were defeated by Mr. Wheeler, who until then was just an unknown rookie, and underdog. Ever since then it was all downhill for you. Mr. Howard, your were once the American and the intercontinental champion of Duel Monster. But then after the embarrassing defeat you were handed by Mr. Maximillion Pegasus you sank into a depression, and your defeat at the hands of Mr. Wheeler at Duelist Kingdom, and your most recent duel with him earned you a place in the asylum."

"Err… I'm going to kill that blonde haired bastard!" bellowed Keith.

Rex laughed.

"Pot, this is Kettle, come in over."

"What did you say?"

"Calm down boys… Rest assured, you'll all get a chance for revenge. But you'll all have more than rare cards and a thirst of vengeance to help you out, but more on that later. For now my men will escort you to your rooms."

After Keith and the others were gone some of Checkmates guests stood up.

"Do you really think those washed up has-beens have a chance of beating Yugi Moto and his friends?"

"Yeah, why don't you just face the King of Games yourself?"

"My dear friends, in the game of chess the pawns go first, and you save your best pieces for later. And rest assured I do have better pieces than those three."

The other gamblers calmed down.

"No one ever said it was going to be easy bringing down the great Yugi Moto… Can it really be done? Can even this legendary duelist survive the gauntlet that I'm about to throw for him? Ladies and gentlemen… place your bets."

**(To be continued)**


	2. Kaiba's Nightmare

Seto Kaiba was climbing a huge mountain. He didn't know how he had gotten here or why, he just knew he wanted to get to the top, and he would do anything, and go through anyone to get there. He had already come a long way. At the bottom there had been many people he had known, but they were too slow and too weak. He hadn't seen anyone else for awhile, perhaps he was climbing higher than anyone before him, but he still hadn't reached the summit. As he continued to climb higher and higher the air around him got colder and colder. His lungs were starting to hurt and his mouth was quickly turning dry.

"Almost there… Almost there… Where am I going anyway?"

Soon he reached the top, now he could walk the rest of the way. His vision was clouded by a very thick mist, but he was careful not to fall off as he made his was summit. Suddenly he heard singing.

"Hush little baby don't say a word… Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird…"

"Who's there?"

Kaiba could see the outline of someone through the mist.

"And if that mockingbird don't sing… Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring…"

Kaiba recognized that voice, and the person was starting to come into view through the mist, there was no mistaking it.

"Yugi Moto!"

Yugi Moto stood there surrounded by his best monsters. He smiled mockingly at Kaiba and continued to sing.

"And if that diamond ring turns brass… Mama's gonna buy you a looking glass…"

Suddenly Yugi's monsters started to attack. Kaiba had just barely jumped out of the way to dodge them.

"And if that looking glass gets broke… Mama's gonna buy you a billy goat."

Yugi Moto was the person responsible for Kaiba's fall from grace. The Archangel who cast him out of heaven so to speak, and ever since then Yugi had stood in Kaiba's way of reclaiming his former glory.

"This ends now!"

To combat Yugi's monsters Kaiba called on Kaiser Glider, Luster Dragon #2, Hyozanryu, King Dragun, and Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End. They all began attacking Yugi's monster's, but the King of Games wasn't shaken.

"And if that billy goat won't pull… Mama's gonna buy you a cart and bull."

First the Dark Magician of Chaos destroyed King Dragun, then Yugi's Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning got rid of Kaiba's Chaos Emperor Dragon with it's special effect, and finally the Dark Magician protected the Dark Magician Girl from the rest of Kaiba's monsters.

"And if that cart and bull turn over… Mama's gonna buy you a dog named Rover…"

Kaiba's monsters had all been destroyed, and Yugi's own monsters were closing in for the kill.

"And if that dog named rover don't bark… Mama's gonna buy you a horse and cart… And if that horse and cart fall down… you'll be the biggest crybaby in town…"

"I'VE HEARD ENOUGH!"

Kaiba dodged the attacks from Yugi's monsters.

"I WON'T BE DEFEATED BY YOU AGAIN! NEVER AGAIN!"

Kaiba drew the cards from his deck that he was looking for.

"I call on my most powerful monster! THE BLUE EYES ULTIMATE DRAGON!"

Kaiba's Ultimate Dragon took to the sky and stared hungrily at Yugi's monsters.

"Ultimate Dragon, destroy Yugi's monsters! NEUTRON BLAST!"

Yugi's monsters were all blown away, and Yugi himself was sent hurtling over the edge of the cliff. Somewhere down below Kaiba saw Yugi's friends catch him before he hit the bottom, but Kaiba didn't care.

"I AM NUMBER ONE!" he announced to the heavens.

After Kaiba's proclamation it got very quiet. He was all alone at the summit of the mountain. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of his coat whipping in the wind. For some reason his victory over Yugi seemed very empty.

"Why? I won… didn't I?"

Kaiba heard someone stepping up behind him too late. The next thing he knew he was free falling down the side of the mountain.

"NO!"

As Kaiba fell he saw a rock sticking out of the mountain's side, he knew it was his only chance. He reached out and grabbed onto it when it came by.

"AAAGGHHH!"

One of his arms had been dislocated. The pain was unbearable, but he knew he had to hold on… easier said than done.

"Seto!"

"Mokuba?"

Kaiba saw his little brother running towards the edge of the cliff where he was hanging on for dear life with one hand.

"Mokuba, help me!"

"I'm coming Seto!"

Mokuba finally made it to the edge. He tried his hardest to pull his big brother up, but he wasn't strong enough.

"Mokuba, I'm slipping!"

"Hang on Seto!"

It happened so fast, it happened so slow, Kaiba's uninjured hand slipped from his little brother's and he started to plummet into the dark abyss below.

"SETO!

"MOKUBA!"

Kaiba expected the ground to come rushing up to meet him, but instead he just kept falling and falling. As he did the void beneath him got deeper and darker.

"It's only a dream." he told himself "It's just a stupid dream! Any minute now I'm going to hit the bottom and the shock will wake me up!"

Suddenly Kaiba saw something moving around in the darkness. He saw a cloaked figure flying up to meet him.

"This isn't a dream…"

The man in the cloak threw back his hood, his head was nothing more than a skull with bright burning red eyes.

"IT'S A NIGHTMARE! MWAH-AH-HA-AH-HA!"

The void got a lot hotter. Kaiba heard laughing and moaning down bellow. He heard screams of mortal agony, pain, and grief. Then down below he saw billions of people rotting in a molten sea of lava.

"And the real horror, is that this nightmare will never… ever… end."

As soon the reaper finished his sentence Kaiba splashed into the sea of lava, the pain was excruciating. He wanted to scream out in pain, but his mouth wouldn't open. The other damned souls swam over to welcome him to Hell. Among them was his stepfather Gozaburo.

"AH!"

Seto Kaiba woke up in bed. It had been a dream, but that didn't change the fact that his forehead was drenched in sweat or that his heart was pounding. He looked over at the clock and saw that it was about one in the morning.

"Uh… I must be working too hard…" he told himself.

But that nightmare of his had nothing to do with running Kaiba Corp. He had finally defeated Yugi Moto, the bane of his existence, but his victory had been empty and short lived. He had plunged into Hell, and not even Mokuba was strong enough to save him.

"Mokuba…"

He got out of bed and put on his robe. Then he went down to the room where his little brother was sleeping soundly.

"Little brother…"

No matter what had happened over the course of his life, Seto Kaiba had never forgotten what was really important. His little brother was the only family he had, if not for him the world would be a much darker place than it already was.

"Mokuba… you're the only thing that keeps me sane."

When the rare opportunity of sleep came to Seto Kaiba it was always behind a locked door. When he went back to his room he did just that, but he wasn't sure he'd be able to sleep for the rest of the night.

"Even Mokuba wasn't enough to save me…"

Normally Kaiba wasn't bothered by bad dreams, but something about this one had gotten to him. Mokuba hadn't been able to save him, but when Yugi fell off the mountain his friends had been able to save him. And this was the first time he hard ever heard Yugi Moto actually mocking him.

"Hush little baby."

It was a song about a kid that couldn't be satisfied. And Yugi's version of the final verse of that song seemed to strengthen that song's meaning.

"Why do I even care? My god what's happening to me!"

After a moment Kaiba just took a deep breath and did his best to forget all about it.

"I need a vacation."

**(To be continued)**


	3. Take a deep breath

"Joey… earth to Joey! Are you in there? It's your turn." said Yugi.

"I know… I'm just taking in this moment."

"Taking in the moment? Does he think he's going to win?" asked Tea.

"Well… I guess the third time is the charm." said Mai.

(Yugi: 2000)

(Joey: 1200)

"I can't believe this…" thought Joey "Yugi has no face down cards, so if I take care of his monsters and attack him, then I'll win the duel! I'll be King Joey!"

"Are you planning on make your move today?" asked Mai.

"Okay I'm going! Alright Yug, you asked me not to go easy on you and now you're going to pay for it. I sacrifice Little-Winguard, Baby Dragon, and Gearfried the Iron Knight, to summon Gilford the Lightening!"

(ATK: 2800 DEF: 1400)

"Now all the monsters you have out are destroyed!"

Lightening shot out of Gilford's sword and destroyed all of Yugi's monsters.

"Now Gilford, wipe out the rest of Yugi's life points!"

Before Gilford could reach Yugi he was met with a wall of fuzz balls.

"What?"

"Sorry Joey, but by discarding Kuriboh from my hand I can negate all battle damage inflicted by one of your monsters."

"Oh great…"

"Now it's my turn! I summon the Mystical Elf!"

(ATK: 800 DEF: 2000)

"Now I can activate the spell Magical Dimension! By offering my Mystical Elf, I can destroy one of your monsters!"

"Say what?"

Joey's Gilford was destroyed.

"And that's not all. Now I can special summon a spellcaster type monster from my hand, and I choose the Dark Magician Girl!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1700)

"Dark Magician Girl, attack Joey directly!"

(Joey: 0)

"Aw man… One more time!"

"No way Joseph, you've lost three times in a row. Now it's my turn."

"To lose?" asked Tristan.

"No, to duel!" said Mai.

"Alright Mai… just promise me you'll give it your all."

"Very funny Yugi, did you think I was planning to go easy on you?"

"Just making sure."

"Whatever, let's duel Yugi!"

Yugi and Mai's life points went straight to 4000.

"Since you're such a gentlemen I sure you won't mind if I go first."

"Go ahead." said Yugi

"Very well… I summon Harpie Queen in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1900 DEF: 1200)

"Next I'll activate the spell card Elegant Egotist, with this spell card I can special summon a Harpie Lady from my hand or deck, and I choose Harpie Lady 1!"

(ATK: 1300 DEF: 1400)

"As long as she's on the field, all wind attribute monsters on my side of the field gain 300 ATK points."

(ATK: 2200)

(ATK: 1600)

"Next I'll place two cards face down, and equip my Harpie Lady 1 with Cyber Shield!"

(ATK: 2100)

"And that'll do it for me."

Yugi drew his card.

"I play the spell card Ancient Rules. This let's me special summon one level 5 or higher normal monster from my hand, and I choose the Dark Magician!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2100)

"Dark Magician on his first turn… No matter… As soon as he attacks I'll just activate my Mirror Wall trap and cut his attack points in half, then on my next turn I'll activate my face down Solomon's Lawbook, that way I'll skip my standby phase and won't have to pay half my life points to keep it in play."

"Next, I'll sacrifice my Dark Magician…"

"What?"

"To summon my Dark Eradicator Warlock!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2100)

The Dark Eradicator Warlock had the exact same level, ATK, DEF, and type as the Dark Magician, but Mai knew he had something that made him significantly more powerful.

"Next I'll activate the spell card Monster Reborn, which I'll use to special summon the Dark Magician from my graveyard!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2100)

"And that's not all, as long as the Dark Eradicator Warlock is on my side of the field, I can inflict 1000 points of damage to your life points every time one of us plays a normal spell card, just like my Monster Reborn."

(Mai: 3000)

"Next I'll play my Pot of Greed, which let's me draw two cards, and since it's another normal spell card you lose another 1000 life points."

(Mai: 2000)

"Next I'll play the spell card Dark Magic Attack. Since I currently have the Dark Magician on my side of the field, I can use this spell card to destroy every spell or trap card that you have out, and since it's another normal spell, you lose another 1000 life points!"

(Mai: 1000)

"And finally, I'll play my Swords of Revealing Light!"

Every rookie and his sister knew that the Swords of Revealing Light prevented all monsters on the opposing side of the field from attacking for three whole turns, but that was irrelevant right now, all that matter was that it was a normal spell card.

(Mai: 0)

"That was quick." said Tea.

"No kidding, not only did Yugi beat Mai in one turn, he didn't even attack." said Joey.

"Are you guys even trying?" asked Yugi.

"Yugi?"

"I think you guys are letting me win!"

"What makes you think I of all people would let you win?" asked Mai.

"I know you guys are better than this."

"Yugi, I just think you're so good you make us look…" Joey didn't want to say the word weak, he knew Mai would never forgive him if he did. "What's the big deal anyway?"

"I'm trying to be a better duelist."

"Yugi, you're the fricking King of Games, according to everyone else you beat your own Egyptian God Cards, and you just beat me in one turn." said Mai.

"Yugi… what's wrong?" asked Tea.

"I… I didn't win that duel against Prince Vlad…"

"What are you talking about Yug? I saw you beat that blood sucking vampire."

"Yeah, then you shot continuously at him like maniac with automatic firearms, then you stabbed him in the chest with a silver dagger, then you took a silver machete and chopped his head off." said Tristan.

"Too much information." said Tea.

"Joey, I only won that duel because he was toying with me for awhile… He could have beat me, but he decided to drag it out… If he hadn't none of us would be standing here. What if the next freak job that decided to take me on doesn't feel like toying with me, and as a result we all die?"

"With all do respect Yugi, I think you've run the whole gauntlet of madness." said Mai.

"Yeah, it's been three months and nothing even remotely apocalyptic has happened."

"That's not entirely true." said Tristan.

"What do you mean?"

"Serenity has fricking boyfriend!"

"Oh don't start that up again."

Yugi and the others would finally be meeting Serenity's elusive boyfriend Michael tomorrow when she came to visit. All Joey had know about him from his conversations that he had with his little sister on the phone was that apparently he was something of a duelist himself, and that their mother approved.

"Maybe he'll be decent test of my skills." thought Yugi

Later that night, Tea was the only one still at Yugi's. Everyone else had gone home. Yugi himself was going through his cards as usual trying to come up with even better strategies.

"Yugi you beat Mai in one turn today, and you didn't even attack once."

"That was luck of the draw Tea! I know Joey is my best friend, but I swear to God he is living proof that you can't rely on luck alone to win a duel!"

"Yugi, relax."

"How can I relax? Some power hungry lunatic could be plotting our doom at this very moment!"

"Yugi!"

Tea pressed her hands down onto his shoulders, forcing him to sit still. She started massaging them.

"You need to relax." she said calmly.

Deep down Yugi knew Tea was right, but there had been a time when Yugi didn't have to face these lunatics alone, but those days were over. He took out the box that contained all that remained of his dear friend, the Egyptian God cards. They had been unused since his duel with Atem in Egypt, solely on the grounds that Yugi didn't think he was ready to use them.

"Atem left me to be his legacy… I want to make him proud…"

Tea missed Atem as much as Yugi did, maybe even more, but deep down she knew he wasn't going to come back.

"You will… Have faith."

**(To be continued)**


	4. Meet Michael

Yugi and the others were awaiting the imminent arrival of Serenity and her boyfriend, unsurprisingly Tristan was not present.

"Just remember, don't do or say anything stupid." said Mai "And your mother approved so he can't be a bad person."

"On that topic, if anyone asks, the rumors are not true, we are not living together." said Joey.

"What's the big deal?"

"I know a lot of people do it, but there are just as many people who claim it's unethical. And I need to set a good example for my sister."

"On that topic." said Tea "Do you guys… uh… you know?"

"No, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." said Mai.

It was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon when they heard a car pulling up outside the game shop, moments later the door burst open.

"Joey!"

"Hey sis." he said as she rushed over and gave him a hug. "How've you been?"

"I've been well… Oh and… there's someone here I'd like you to meet."

Right behind Serenity was a boy with shining brown hair and big biceps. He was dressed in a black tank top, a sleeveless white vest, and blue jeans.

"Whoa… You must be Michael."

"And you must be Joey. Serenity's told me all about you, but truth be told I already knew you by reputation, but I never knew you had such an attractive younger sister."

"So… I take it you heard about my mad skills."

"Of course…"

Michael's eyes were suddenly drawn elsewhere.

"And you must be Yugi Moto!"

"I am…"

"Funny, I pictured you taller."

"Yeah, everyone says that."

At that moment they all heard a cell phone go off. It was Michael's.

"Uh… I have to take this, hold on."

Michael answered his phone.

"Yes, Mr. Pegasus."

"Pegasus?"

"Why's your boyfriend receiving phone calls from the creator of Duel Monsters?" asked Tea.

"I thought you knew… He's not just a duelist; he's a card designer… I guess that's one of the reasons why mom approved, he's moderately wealthy."

"Well… that's quite a catch you've got there." said Mai.

"Yes sir… I'll have them on your desk before the week is out… Thank you sir."

Michael put his phone away.

"Sorry about that… So as I was saying. Yugi, would you honor me with a duel?"

"Why don't you prove yourself first by dueling a top contender like…"

Mai stopped Joey from finishing his sentence.

"I told you, don't do anything stupid."

"A card designer… this ought to be a good challenge." thought Yugi "Very well Michael… I accept."

Yugi and the others went outside for the duel. It was then that they saw the car Michael had been driving was a silver Lamborghini.

"Nice car."

"That's a really good catch you've got there." said Mai to Serenity.

"Okay, this is just a friendly game of Duel Monsters, no strings attached, no risks, deal?"

"Deal."

"Let's duel!"

Both Yugi and Michael's life points immediately went to 4000 and they both drew five cards.

"Okay, let's rock paper scissors to see who decides who goes first."

"One… two… three… shoot!"

"Rock crushes scissors." said Yugi "I'll go second."

"That's your call."

"I don't know what kind of card's he uses yet." thought Yugi "And this way I get to attack first."

Michael drew his first card.

"Tell me something Yugi. Do you enjoy watching machinimas?"

"What's a machinima?" asked Tea.

"It's a movie made by using graphics engines from video games."

"Well… I don't think I've seen any." said Yugi.

"Boy have you been missing out. There are loads of them on YouTube. Tell you what, when this is over we'll watch some. My favorite is Halo Spriggs."

"Uh… What does that have to do with this?" asked Yugi.

"Oh it has everything to do with this Yugi… There are certain perks to being a card designer. With Mr. Pegasus' help I was able to make card of my favorite machinima characters… And here's one of them… I summon Super Soldier Willy in attack mode!"

A soldier wearing yellow and brown body armor appeared on the field.

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1600)

"Here's Willy!"

"Yep he talks." said Michael.

The hologram of Willy walked over to Yugi and pointed his gun at him.

"Alright, I've got one question for you… Where… is … Spriggs?"

"What?" asked Yugi.

"Willy, get back over here." said Michael.

"Alright…"

"Sorry about that. Anyway, I'll end my turn by placing one card face down on the field."

"Alright… A warrior monster with 1800 attack points and one face down card." thought Yugi "It's probably a trap… but I'm prepared for these situations…"

Yugi looked at the cards in his hand to see what his options were.

"I'll place one card face down and summon Skilled Dark Magician!"

(ATK: 1900 DEF: 1700)

"Skilled Dark Magician, attack Super Soldier Willy!"

"Nice try Yugi, but you've just activated my trap card."

"I knew it."

"I activate the continuous trap card Armor Lock! By discarding one card from my hand, I can prevent one of my Super Soldiers from being destroyed in battle for the duration of the turn, and any battle damage I take from battles involving that monster is halved!"

Before the blast reached Willy he punched the ground with his fist, then he was enveloped in some kind of energy field. The attack hit Willy dead on, but he was unharmed.

(Michael: 3950)

"Ha! Thought you could handle the big Willy, but you were wrong!" he said as he got up.

"Now it's my turn…" said Michael.

Michael drew his card.

"I summon Super Soldier Triple M in attack mode!"

This time a green soldier appeared on the field. His armor seemed to resemble that of a samurai.

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1600)

"Hey, Triple M! What's up?" asked Willy.

"Nothing much, what's been going on here?"

"We're dueling the King of Games."

"That's Yugi Moto? I always thought he was taller."

"What kind of name is Triple M?" asked Mai.

"Those are his initials." said Serenity.

"What do they stand for?"

"You'll see."

"Why did he summon a monster with less attack points than Yugi's Skilled Dark Magician in attack mode?" asked Tea.

"It must have some kind of special effect." said Joey.

"Correct, but I might not need it." said Michael "First I'll activate Willy's special effect, Battle Frenzy!"

"This doesn't sound good."

"You see, in the machinima Willy is something of a homicidal maniac, so for every card I discard from my hand, I can boost his attack points by 500 for the duration of my turn. Since it's all I need, I'll discard two cards."

Willy started glowing.

"Oh yeah! I feel the battle frenzy coming on!"

(ATK: 2800)

"Alright Willy, attack Yugi's Skilled Dark Magician!"

"Yes sir!"

Willy pointed at Yugi.

"Get ready little man! The big Willy's comin ta get y-o-o-o-o-o-u-u-u! Aw man… that battle cry really sucked a big one."

"Willy, just attack." said Michael.

"Alright."

Willy took aim at Yugi's Skilled Dark Magician and fired.

"I don't think so, I activate my face down trap, Magic Cylinder! Now your attacks is reflected right back at your life points!"

"Oh great…"

(Michael: 1650)

"Well… I've still got Triple M's attack to use."

"But he has fewer attack points than my Magician!"

"Who said anything about attacking your magician? He's attacking you!"

"What?"

"I activate Triple M's special effect! I just gotta ditch two cards, and then he can attack you directly!"

"Alright, engaging jetpack!"

A jetpack appeared on Triple M's back.

"Wait a minute… hold on… To infinity, and even further!"

"It's to infinity and beyond." said Michael.

"Whatever, I'm just gonna attack." said Triple M.

Triple M blasted off into the air, aimed at Yugi with his weapon, and fired.

(Yugi: 2200)

"And now I'll end my turn with the spell card Emergency Card Stash, when there are no other cards in my hand, I can use this spell card to draw six new cards from my deck. Your move Yugi."

"Shoot… With that Armor Lock card he can prevent his monsters from being destroyed and take half the damage just by discarding one card from his hand. Then on my turn he can just turn around and attack me directly… Now this is a challenge."

Yugi drew his card and smiled.

"Hmm… Problem very hard, but the solution is very simple. This ought to buy me some time, and I can probably make a dent in his life points…"

Yugi looked at the monsters in his hand.

"Wow… I haven't used this one in a good while… but he'll do just fine. Alright Michael… I sacrifice my Skilled Dark Magician for Summoned Skull!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 1200)

"Next I'll play my Swords of Revealing Light!"

Triple M and Willy both looked up at the sky.

"What the?"

Before either of them could finish their sentences several luminous swords fell from the sky and froze them on the spot.

"Can't move… a muscle… swords… paralyzing me… Must… talk… like… this." said Willy.

"Now Summoned Skull, attack Triple M!"

"Triple M, activate Armor Lock!"

Even thought the swords prevented Michael's monsters from attacking, it didn't mean they couldn't defend themselves. Triple M smashed his fist into the ground and an energy field surrounded him. He was able to survive the lightening strike attack.

(Michael: 1300)

"Ha! You think you can stop me? You think you can take me down? You can't stop me, for I am Mitch Miles Murphy!"

"His name is what?" asked Tea.

"You hear that? You hear that? There's no one alive that can stop a Sergeant Murphy!"

"What does he mean, no one can stop a Sergeant Murphy?" asked Mai.

"I don't know what it means either." replied Michael "My grandpa just told me that no one can stop a Sergeant Murphy."

"Whatever, I'll end my turn by placing two cards face down on the field." said Yugi.

"He knew he wouldn't be able to destroy my monsters, so froze them so they couldn't attack. Clever, I expected nothing less from the King of Games."

Michael drew his card.

"First I'll place a monster in defense mode, next I'll switch Triple M and Willy to defense mode."

(2x DEF: 1600)

"And that will do it for me."

"Okay… I have no way of knowing what that face down card is… but given the stats of the cards Michael has been playing, I don't think it's strong enough to survive my Summoned Skull attack. Then again if I do attack that card will activate and Michael will be able to save it with his Armor Lock card… Wait a minute… Michael can only use Armor Lock to protect his monsters when they are being attacked… and he can only do it when he has cards in his hand to discard."

Yugi made up his mind.

"I'll summon a monster of my own in defense mode, next I'll attack your face down monster with Summoned Skull!"

Michael's monster was forced to reveal itself.

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1600)

"Light purple and pinkish red armor?" asked Joey.

"Summoned Skull, lightening strike!"

"Meme, activate Armor Lock!"

Using Armor Lock, Michael's monster was able to protect itself.

"What? You never seen a girl before?" it asked.

"A girl?"

"Yep, her name is Meme, and she's the medic of the 1st Semi-mechanized infantry battalion." said Michael.

"I end my turn."

Michael drew his card.

"First I'll activate Meme's special effect. During my standby phase she can do one of two things. I can either gain 500 life points or I can draw another card from my deck… I think I'll take the later."

Michael drew another card.

"Excellent… Next I'll switch all my monsters to attack mode."

(3x ATK: 1800)

"Attack mode? But why?" asked Tea "The Swords of Revealing Light are still in effect."

"Next I'll play my Pot of Greed… and summon Super Soldier Hammer!"

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1600)

"Who the heck is the guy with white armor and the fishbowl on his head?" asked Joey.

"I'm Lieutenant Hammer, and I'm in charge of this detachment."

"You're also a bigger womanizer than James Bond." said Meme.

"Aw man, you just got burned." said Willy.

"Meme, this isn't a good time."

"I take it by the way they're talking, they have some kind of history?" asked Mai.

"Meme's one of his exes." replied Michael "But the fun doesn't stop there… Next I'll play the spell card Double Summon, now I can summon Super Soldier Vollin in attack mode."

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1600)

"Oh great, just what I need." said Hammer looking at the purple and gray armored person who suddenly appeared on the field "Another psycho ex."

"Well maybe if you hadn't slept with every woman in the army, you wouldn't have so many psycho exes." said Vollin.

"Wow. This is better than TV." said Joey.

"What's she doing here anyway?" asked Meme "She tried to kill us all back on Zambai."

"Because there's only so many characters on Zambai for me to turn into cards." replied Michael "Now back to the duel. First I'll play Mystical Space Typhoon, which as I'm sure you know let's me destroy one spell or trap card on the field. I'll use it to destroy your Swords of Revealing Light."

The swords disappeared.

"And don't think I've forgotten about your face down card, which is why I'm using Vollin's effect. Once per turn I can discard one card from my hand, and she can destroy one spell or trap card on the field, and her target is your face down card."

Yugi's Mirror Force was destroyed.

"Next I'll activate Willy's special effect, by discarding two cards from my hand, I can increase his attack points by 1000."

(ATK: 2800)

"Willy, attack his Summoned Skull!"

Willy took his weapon and pointed it at Yugi's monster.

"Fire in the hole!"

The Summoned Skull was destroyed.

(Yugi: 1900)

"Now all I have to do is destroy his last monster." thought Michael "His life points will be wide open, and I'll be the one who defeated the King of Games."

Took a minute to take it in.

"Hammer, attack his face down monster!"

Hammer attacked, and the monster revealed itself.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me!"

"That's right. And when my Marshmallon is flipped face up, the person who attacked it takes 1000 points of damage."

(Michael: 300)

"And don't forget, Marshmallon can't be destroyed in battle."

Michael couldn't use Triple M's effect to attack directly because he only had one card in his hand. Even if he had two cards to discard he's be 100 attack points short.

"I guess I'll end my turn."

"Then it's my move."

Yugi drew his card.

"I'll use my Pot of Greed… and since one of the two cards I just drew is Watapon, I can special summon it."

(ATK: 200 DEF: 300)

"Now I'll sacrifice Watapon and Marshmallon, to summon this… Gandora the Dragon of Destruction!"

(ATK: 0 DEF: 0)

"Oh crap…"

"Now I'll activate Gandora's effect. By paying half my life points, I can destroy and remove from play every other card on the field!"

(Yugi: 950)

Red lights burst out of the orbs on Gandora's body. Just like that every other card on the field was destroyed.

"And that's not all… Now Gandora gains 300 attack points for every card that was just destroyed."

(ATK: 1800)

"Gandora, attack him directly!"

(Michael: 0)

"Oh well… It was all in good fun." said Michael "And I guess there's no shame in being beaten by the best."

"You should be proud Michael, you actually had me worried there for a moment… Now what was it you were saying about us being able to see these machinimas on YouTube?"

Michael smiled.

"You got a computer in the house."

"Follow me."

Yugi and his friends didn't realize that the whole time he was dueling with Michael, Duke and Tristan were hiding in a nearby alley watching it.

"Hmm…" said Duke "Fancy car, big biceps, nice income, shining brown hair, and he can go head to toe with Yugi in a duel."

"We're totally hosed, aren't we?" said Tristan.

"Absolutely."

**(To be continued)**


	5. Checkmate's game

Yugi and the others were crowded around the computer watching the machinima that inspired Michael to make his cards.

"Humans! Hey humans! We wish to challenge you to a duel between you two girlish heroes at the following location. If you refuse we will feed your Princess Peach to your legendary villain... Mario!"

"HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!"

"The aliens are threatening to feed a prisoner they dressed up as Princess Peach to Mario?"

"Don't forget Tea, they're as dumb as a rocks."

"Oh, I almost forgot to ask, do you have Spriggs somewhere in your deck?"

"But of course." replied Michael "I just never got the chance to use that card."

Suddenly the screen went blank.

"Yug, I think your screensaver is acting up."

"That's not my screensaver…"

Yugi tried jiggling the switch, but it didn't work. That's when they heard the voice.

"There is nothing wrong with your computer. Do not attempt to adjust the screen. For the next several minutes we will be in control."

The next image on the screen was that of a man sitting in a chair playing with pieces on a chess board. Yugi and the others couldn't see his face because the chair was facing away from the screen. He was also wearing a metallic glove.

"Greetings Yugi Moto and friends… I probably don't need an introduction… But incase I do… I am Checkmate, and all the things you've heard about me are true."

"CHECKMATE!" exclaimed Michael.

"What? You know this guy?"

"Shh!"

"I suppose you're wondering why I've contacted you… We'd like you all to be part of a little experiment… My friends and I would like to see if the great King of Games himself can fall and fall hard… So I've arranged a little gauntlet of duelists for you to face. If you successfully complete my little challenge the rewards will be great… But if you fail the consequences may be… fatal."

"What does he mean fatal?"

"I hope you enjoy playing my little game… Because let's face it… I'm not giving you a choice in the matter. If you refuse or if you tell the authorities then your friends will die one by one. You will face one duelist at a time, starting tonight. I'll bet your wondering who your first opponent will be… I'll give you a clue… Go ahead, drop an atom bomb, start a nuclear holocaust, you'll never get rid of me… Once again I hope you enjoy yourself Yugi…"

He moved the pieces and took the black king.

"I'll be watching…"

The screen went blank again, then went back to normal.

"Okay… What just happened?" asked Mai.

"He said he'd kill us… Like it was no big deal!"

"Michael, who the hell was that?" asked Joey.

"He's called Checkmate… I heard about him from Mr. Pegasus… He's the leader of an underground league of super rich, and illegal, gamblers. They play sick twisted games with people's lives."

"What do you mean?" asked Yugi.

"Did you hear about the murder of Japan's latest gold medal winner in Olympic track and field?"

"Yeah, it was all over the news." said Tea.

"Well… His wife had been bound gagged and blindfolded. She had no idea where she was or what was going on for a full twenty four hours. When his wife was finally freed she found him dead at home mauled to death by some kind of animal. What the media didn't tell you was that there was also a chess board and a note beside his body that said, Panther beats Olympic athlete."

"You mean they forced someone to race against a panther?" asked Serenity.

"Seems kinda one sided if you ask me." said Mai.

"I know, but they do it anyway. Now it appears that they have their sights set on the game of Duel Monsters, just as Mr. Pegasus feared. Several small time duelists have been reported missing and have later been found dead in a similar manner as Checkmate's other victims. So far they haven't been using any duelists that stick out to avoid suspicion, but by the looks of things that's all about to change. Make no mistake guys… We're dealing with one sick S.O.B."

For a few moments everyone was quiet.

"So what do we do?"

"What anyone does when a lunatic makes a threat against your life." said Joey "Call the cops."

"How quickly you forget. Checkmate said he's kill us if we told anyone."

"He'll do it too." said Michael "We have no idea who he really is, all we know is that he's rich enough to get away with bloody murder."

"Okay, in that case what **do **we do?"

"We play his game… for now. I'll call Mr. Pegasus when the time is right, then they can come in for the kill."

"Okay… but exactly how many duelists are we going to have to face?"

"He didn't say. He just said we'd be facing them one at a time."

"What did he mean by; Go ahead, drop an atom bomb, start a nuclear holocaust, you'll never get rid of me?"

"He said it was a clue as to who Yugi would be facing first."

"What does it mean."

"Well, there's only one thing capable of surviving a nuclear holocaust… Cockroaches."

"Cockroaches… Who do we know that has anything to do with cockroaches?"

The answer came almost instantaneously.

"Weevil Underwood!"

**(To be continued)**


	6. Send in the pawns

**I am so sorry for the delay. I've had a mid-term to study for and now my electricity has been** **out for three full days. Illustrations of Serenity's new look, Michael, and all the cards Michaels has used so far are available on deviantart.**

After night had fallen Yugi and the others all stayed in one room. No one had yet barged into Yugi's home to challenge him to a duel, but with Checkmate's threat they didn't want to take chances.

"So… What else do we know about Checkmate?"

"Currently Mr. Pegasus and his men have concluded that Checkmate is a super rich man in his late twenties to mid thirties who's good at covering his tracks and frequently spews out anti Catholic propaganda."

"He's obviously rich enough to get away with bloody murder, that's for sure."

"Quick question." said Joey "If he's really a super rich gambler who can afford just about anything. Why would he send Weevil to face Yugi? Yugi can duel circles around him."

"Only if it's a fair fight. I'm told Checkmate tries to give his fellow gamblers something interesting to bet on."

"So the question is… What would Checkmate do to make a duel with Weevil more interesting?"

Before anyone could answer the question the lights went out. Yugi and the others heard the sound of shattering class and rumbling across the floor. Someone was in the room with them.

"AAAGGHHH!"

When the lights came back on Yugi and the others saw that one of them was missing.

"TEA!"

Yugi saw a note where Tea had been sitting moments ago.

Follow the bugs

Yugi saw a trail of toy bugs leading out of the room and then out of the house. He immediately picked up his deck and duel disk and raced off into the night without waiting for the others. He was glad the moon was out, otherwise he wouldn't be able to see the trail of bugs. It brought him to an alley, at the opening he saw something on the wall. It looked like a giant stink bug.

"What the…"

HSSSSSS

A thick green gas erupted from the bug, Yugi tried t cover his mouth but it was too late. He collapsed to the ground and started coughing.

"AAAGGHHH!"

Hearing Tea scream was enough to get Yugi off his feet.

Checkmate sat on his throne watching the whole thing on screen.

"My friends, Yugi Moto has just inhaled enough toxins to drive five men insane. He can beat Weevil Underwood easily in a fair duel, but can he win like this? Given Weevil's advantage of motivation and Yugi's condition I put the odds at… Weevil 60%, Yugi 40%. Ladies and gentlemen… place your bets."

As Yugi stumbled down the alleyway it felt like the whole world was spinning. It wasn't long before he started hearing noises.

CHICKA- CHICKA- CHICKA- CHICKA- CHICKA

SCRRREEEEEEEE

HSSSSSS

"Oh… my… god!"

Yugi saw thousands of bugs coming at him from down the alley. There were spiders, centipedes, cockroaches, beetles, etc.

"HELP ME! PLEASE!"

When Yugi heard Tea's scream he started charging down the alleyway, completely ignoring all the bugs he stepped on along the way. When he reached the end he saw Tea stuck in what looked like a giant web.

"MWAH-HA-AH-AH-AH! Are you afraid of bugs Yugi Moto? Well then welcome to Hell!"

The ground started to shake. Out of the darkness emerged what looked like a cross between a giant cockroach and a grasshopper. The creature had fierce yellow eyes and huge fangs.

"What do you want from me?"

"I believe you already know the answer to that… Unless you want your little girlfriend to be bug food, you and I are going to duel!"

Yugi knew he wasn't in any condition for this. His hands and legs were shaking like crazy, but he had to do it… for Tea.

"Very well… It's time to duel!"

One of the giant bug's claws unfolded like a duel disk.

"The first turn is mine! First I'll summon a monster in defense mode. Next I'll play the spell card Book of Taiyou! This card let's me flip my face down defense monster into attack mode."

"What? Why didn't he just play his monster in attack mode to begin with?"

"Confused Yugi? I thought that the so called King of Games would know a good strategy when he saw one. My monster is Parasite Paracide!"

"Oh no…"

"Oh yes. And when this monster is flipped face up, it is immediately shuffled into your deck."

The parasite card flew from the field and into Yugi's deck. Yugi knew that as soon as he drew it he would be forced to special summoned it, then he would lose 1000 life points and all his monster would become insects. But when this happened the parasite card was the only face up card in the players deck, so Yugi would know when he was about to draw it.

"You think you've got all the time in the world until my parasite infects you… Well think again… I activate the spell card Jade Insect Whistle! This forces you to take one insect monster from your deck and place it on the top. And if I know your deck, and I do, then you don't have any insect monsters other than the Parasite Paricide I just gave you."

Yugi hated to admit, but the giant bug was right.

"And now I'll end my turn by playing the spell card Insect Barrier. As long as this spell card is on the field, any and all insect monsters you summon will be unable to attack me."

Normally an Insect Barrier wouldn't be a problem for Yugi's deck. He and Atem had used a variety of monsters over the years, but never insects. But Yugi knew that one spell card was about to be a big problem.

"What's the matter Yugi? Having trouble?"

Bees started flying out of the giant bug's mouth.

"Not so high and mighty without your friend the pharaoh to tell you how play?"

Yugi drew his card. It was the Parasite Paracide he had been given. He was forced to special summon it.

(ATK: 500 DEF: 1000)

"Now due to my Parasite's effect, you take 1000 points of damage!"

(Yugi: 3000)

"Now any and all monsters you summon will become insects, and thanks to my Insect Barrier you will be unable to attack me with any of them."

"I… summon… Rapid-Fire Magician in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1200)

Yugi watched in horror and disgust as his magician was infected by the parasite.

"Too bad, so sad. If not for my Insect Barrier you would have been able to attack me directly."

More tiny bugs were coming out of the creature's body. Most people would have trembled in terror, but it just made Yugi want to crush the monster all the more.

"I don't need to attack you to damage your life points… I play the spell card Pot of Greed, which let's me draw two more cards. Now my Magician's effect activates… Whenever I activate a normal spell card, he deals out 400 points of damage."

Yugi's magician started conjuring balls of magical energy and fired them at the giant bug.

(Weevil: 3600)

"Is that all? In that case it's my turn, and I summon Insect Knight!"

(ATK: 1900 DEF: 1500)

"Next I'll play the spell card Creature Swap. This forces us both to pick one monster on our side of the field and exchange it with the monster our opponent picks, and since my Insect Knight is the only monster I have out I have to pick it."

Yugi wasn't sure what to do. The sight of the Parasite Paracide on his side of the field made his flesh crawl. He wasn't sure how much longer be could stand looking at it.

"I choose Parasite Paracide!"

"Very well… then my Insect Knight goes to you, and my Parasite comes back to me."

Yugi thought he had done himself a favor, but there was something he overlooked.

Now that Parasite was on his opponent's side of the field Yugi couldn't get rid of it by tributing it for another monster, and all his monsters would still become insects.

"And now I'll end my turn by playing the spell card Emergency Card Stash. Since there are no other cards in my hand, this spell card let's me draw six cards from my deck."

The giant bug drew his cards.

"It's your move Yugi… not that it matters."

Yugi's hands and legs were still shaking non stop, his head was spinning like crazy, and the giant bug before him seemed to be getting more terrifying by the minute.

"I summon… a monster in defense mode."

"Thanks to my Parasite that's all you can do… I think you'll remember this monster… After all… It's one of the first big league monsters you ever fought… I summon the Petit Moth!"

(ATK: 300 DEF: 200)

"Now I'll equip it with the Cocoon of Evolution!"

Right before Yugi's eyes the Petit Moth sealed itself in a cocoon.

(ATK: 0 DEF: 2000)

"You know what happens next, don't you?"

"I'm not afraid of that thing… It takes six turns for the Petit Moth to fully evolve!"

"Normally that would be the case, but I have a card in my deck that makes summoning the Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth less of a chore. I play the spell card Accelerated Metamorphosis! This cuts the time it takes for my monster to evolve in half. Fortunately for you that's all I can do right now… So it's your turn."

Yugi knew he had to do something to destroy the cocoon before it hatched.

"I sacrifice Insect Knight to summon Berfomet!"

(ATK: 1400 DEF: 1800)

"When Berfomet is successfully summoned, I can add Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts to my hand. Next I'll play Polymerization to fuse Gazelle and Berfomet into Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast!"

(ATK: 2100 DEF: 1800)

"Chimera, attack his Cocoon!"

"Forgetting something?"

Yugi forgot that Parasite Paracide was still on the field, as a result all his monsters were turned into insects as soon as they were summoned. His Chimera didn't make it past the Insect Barrier.

"Shoot… I guess… I'll end my turn."

"Very well… I summon Ultimate Insect LV 1!"

(ATK: 0 DEF: 0)

"Some Ultimate Insect… That thing doesn't have any attack or defense points. But if I don't find a way to get past that Insect Barrier it's going to get bigger."

Yugi still didn't have anything in his hand that could destroy the Insect Barrier. Suddenly his stomach jumped and his eyes felt like they were ready to pop out of their sockets. When he could see again he saw that his fierce insect opponent was drooling hungrily.

"I summon… a monster in defense mode."

"No defense will save you from the onslaught I have planned… During my Standby Phase I can sacrifice my Ultimate Insect LV 1 to special summon for Ultimate Insect LV 3 from my deck!"

(ATK: 1400 DEF: 900)

"But he won't be sticking around for long, because now I'm activating the spell card Level Up, now he evolves even further, to LV 5!"

(ATK: 2300 DEF: 900)

"Next I'll normal summon Pinch Hopper!"

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 1200)

"Now I'll play the spell card Tribute to the Doomed. By discarding one card from my hand, I can destroy one monster on the field, and I choose my own Pinch Hopper!"

The creature's Pinch Hopper was mummified.

"Now that he's been destroyed I can special summon one Insect monster from my hand, and I choose my glorious Insect Queen!"

(ATK: 2200 DEF: 2400)

"As I'm sure you know, my Insect Queen gains 200 additional attack points for every monster on the field, including yours."

(ATK: 3400)

"But since she needs a sacrifice in order to attack, I think I'll pass this turn."

Yugi knew he was about two find himself face to face with three of the fiercest insect monsters in the game, but for Tea's sake he was unwilling to give up, no matter how horrifying his opponent was or how badly his body wanted to give up on him.

"I'll switch my Chimera and my Rapid-Fire Magician to defense mode."

(DEF: 1800)

(DEF: 1200)

"Next I'll play the spell card Magical Mallet. Now I can shuffle all the cards in my hand back into my deck, and since it's a normal spell card, my Rapid-Fire Magician inflicts 400 points of damage to your life points."

(Weevil: 3200)

"And I'll end my turn by summoning another monster in defense mode."

"Is that all? Well then it's your funeral! Now that it's my Standby Phase, my Ultimate Insect evolves to LV 7!"

(ATK: 2600 DEF: 1200)

"Now due to his special effect, all your monster's lose 700 attack and defense points!"

(ATK: 1400 DEF: 1100)

(ATK: 900 DEF: 500)

"Next I'll play the spell card Pot of Greed, which let's me draw two card. And now my Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth emerges!"

(ATK: 3500 DEF: 3000)

"Next I'll normal summon Cockroach Knight!"

(ATK: 800 DEF: 900)

"But he won't be sticking around, because now I'm sacrificing him so my Insect Queen can attack!"

The Insect Queen destroyed Yugi's Chimera.

"When Chimera is destroyed, I can summon one monster that I used to summon him… and I choose Berfomet!"

(ATK: 1400 DEF: 1800)

"Don't forget, thanks to my Ultimate Insect he loses 700 attack and defense points."

(ATK: 700 DEF: 1100)

"Now my Ultimate Insect, destroy his Rapid-Fire Magician!"

Yugi's magician didn't stand a chance.

"Now my Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth, destroy one of his face down monsters!"

The Great Moth flapped it's wings and blew the wind at Yugi's monster, but nothing happened.

"What?"

"Sorry… but my face down monster is Obnoxious Celtic Guard!"

(ATK: 1400 DEF: 1200)

"Drat… It doesn't matter that my Ultimate Insect reduces its points, it's special effect lets it survive any battle with a monster that has 1900 attack points or more."

(ATK: 700 DEF: 500)

"Well… Now my Insect Queen lays an egg!"

(ATK: 100 DEF: 100)

"That ends my turn… but it won't be long before my beautiful bugs end you."

Yugi didn't have anything that could take on those three monstrous bugs, but he had something to protect him incase his opponent found a way around his Obnoxious Celtic Guard.

"I play the Swords of Revealing Light!"

"A desperate move for a desperate person… I pass my turn, but it won't be long before I defeat you and take my rightful place as the King of Games."

"Whatever…."

Until now Yugi had just been shaking and his head had been spinning, but now he felt like he was going to pass out.

"I'll summon another monster in defense mode."

"Four monster's in defense mode… Well that won't protect you from this… I play the spell card Deadly Pheromone! Thanks to this, you take damage equal to the number of insect monsters I have out times 500!"

(Yugi: 500)

"Are you ready to give up yet?"

"Never!"

Yugi drew his card.

"I reveal my three face down monsters! Alpha, Beta, and Gamma the magnet warriors! But tributing these three monster I can summon Valkyrion the Magna Warrior!"

(ATK: 3500 DEF: 3850)

"Talk about too little too late, not only is you monster unable to attack since it's infected by my parasite, but thanks to my Ultimate Insect he loses 700 attack and defense points!"

(ATK: 2800 DEF: 3150)

"That's only as long as your monster stays on the field…"

"What?"

"I play the spell card Lightening Vortex! By discarding one card from my hand, I can destroy all face up monsters on your side of the field!"

All the monsters on Yugi's opponent's side of the field were struck by lightening.

"NO! MY BEAUTIFUL BUGS!"

"Since Parasite Paracide is no longer in play my monsters are no longer treated as insects, and without Ultimate Insect LV 7 my Valkyrion's points go back to full!"

(ATK: 3500 DEF: 3850)

"Valkyrion… ATTACK!"

(Weevil: 0)

Checkmate sat on his throne smiling.

"You see my friends… That's why the pawns go first."

**(To be continued)**


	7. The Light of all Lights

Seto Kaiba was having the exact same nightmare he had a few days ago. He had finished climbing the mountain, faced Yugi at the top, and finally emerged victorious over his archrival.

"I AM NUMBER ONE!"

Last time Kaiba had been careless, but this time he would see it coming. He kept looking in every direction looking for whoever it was that would try to push him off.

"I am the number one ranked duelist in the world… I lost that title once to Yugi Moto… and I won't let anyone else take it from me ever again."

Suddenly Kaiba saw not one, but several dozen duelists approaching.

"Go figure… When you're the best every jerk and his sister wants a crack at your title. Bring it on!"

The duelists all summoned their best monsters and Kaiba summoned his own monsters to combat them. The duelists were defeated easily, but they just kept coming.

"I am Seto Kaiba! All fall to their knees under my power!"

Kaiba's attention was split in several directions at once trying to give his monsters orders, while he was distracted one of the duelists took the chance.

"Victory Dragon, attack!"

The dragon's attack sent Seto Kaiba falling over the edge of the cliff.

"NO!"

It was happening all over again. As Kaiba fell he grabbed onto a rock sticking out of the mountain, dislocating his arm in the process.

"Seto!"

"Mokuba! Help me!"

Mokuba rushed over and tried to pull him up just like last time, and just like last time Mokuba wasn't capable of doing it alone.

"Seto I… I'm not strong enough!"

"Mokuba!"

"Seto!"

Suddenly someone else was up there with Mokuba, a young woman. She knelt down and grabbed onto Kaiba's arm as well.

"Mokuba, whatever you do, don't let go!" she said.

With the woman's help, Mokuba was able to pull Kaiba up.

"Are you alright big brother?"

"I'm fine… just a dislocated arm…"

The woman giggled a little.

"Aren't you going to thank me?"

Kaiba finally got a good look at her, and he couldn't believe his eyes.

"Who… who are you?"

"I think the real question is… Who are you?"

"Who am I?"

When Kaiba looked up both the woman and Mokuba were gone. He was all by himself in a dark void. Miraculously his arm had been healed, but that did little to settle his nerves.

"This is all just a stupid dream, and I need to wake up"

Kaiba tried forcing himself to wake up, but it was to no avail. Eventually he started walking in a certain direction, but the void seemed to go on and on.

"I've just about had enough of this."

Suddenly Kaiba realized he was standing on something. He looked down and saw a golden surface with a few words engraved into it.

**Who are you?**

"Who am I? What kind of stupid question is that!"

When Kaiba looked up he was still in the void, but this time he was looking at a mirror, only it wasn't his reflection that he saw… It was his step father Gozaburo.

"I am Seto Kaiba…" he said with a wicked grin on his face "I am the one who made you what you are, I am everything you claim to hate and yet I am the driving force in your life, I drive you on and consume you…"

"NO!"

Kaiba punched the mirror causing it to shatter. Almost instantly another mirror took it's place. This time Kaiba saw a perfect reflection of himself.

"I am Seto Kaiba." he said "I don't care about anyone or any thing."

"That's not true! My little bother Mokuba is more important to me than anything!"

"No he's not… All you care about is your big company and beating Yugi Moto, nothing else matters to you. You're just a heartless shell."

Kaiba shattered this mirror as well, but another one didn't take it's place, he was all alone in the void.

"Mokuba?"

There was no answer.

"Mokuba… Mokuba! Anybody?"

"Seto…"

"Who said that?"

"Seto…"

There were two voices.

"Who's there? Show yourself!"

"You're telling me after all this time you don't recognize us?"

"We shouldn't be surprised my dear… I don't recognize him at all."

Two ghostly figures emerged out of the darkness.

"What? This is impossible! You can't be real!"

"We may have been dead for years Seto… but that doesn't make us any less real."

"You're just figments of my imagination. My parents are dead, they died a long time ago, you are not my parents!"

Kaiba's mother slapped him across the face.

"It may be years… But I'm still your mother… and I will not be spoken to like that."

"Do not waste the brief time we have by denying our existence before you son. We have risked much by coming here, and we have done so out of love."

"Okay… What do you want?"

"We want what any parents want for their child, Seto. We want you to live a long, healthy, and happy life. Ask yourself this… Are you happy?"

Normally Kaiba would have shouted out the answer in an instant, but given the circumstances he wondered if this was a trick question.

"… No."

"Is it because you can't defeat Yugi Moto in a silly game, or is it because you've forgotten what's really important."

"There is nothing more important to me than Mokuba!"

"Yes… You have done a good job taking care of your little brother." said his mother "But was Mokuba enough to save you?"

"What do you mean?"

"In your dreams, was Mokuba's strength alone enough to save you from the pit?"

"… No. But what does it matter? That was just a stupid dream!"

"Was it? Have you ever considered that your dreams are trying to tell you something?"

"…"

"Gozaburo Kaiba was right about one thing son… The world can be cruel and full of darkness… But there are lights…"

"What does this have to do with me?"

"If you don't change Seto then you will be no better than Gozaburo… But it's not too late to change. You just need to find the light of all lights."

"And what the hell does that mean?"

"You'll know when you see it. Just know that Gozaburo was definitely wrong about one thing… Not all women are just after your money."

"What?"

Before Kaiba knew it, he woke up in his bed, and everything was as it should be.

"Light of all lights… Uh… I really need a vacation."

**(To be continued)**


	8. Double Trouble

Yugi was rushed to the hospital. After his duel with Weevil the drugs really started taking their toll. Weevil on the other hand…

"Oh man… why does my head hurt?"

When Weevil's vision cleared he saw that he saw strapped to a chair, also he was staring Joey and Michael in the face, and Michael was holding a gun.

"Well if it ain't our old friend Weevil Underpants." said Joey "Give us one good reason why we shouldn't blow your brains out."

"Think of my children!"

"You don't have any children." said Michael.

"Uh… Some day I might…"

"Yeah… and maybe Blue Eyes White Dragons will start flying out of my pants!"

"Joey, let me handle this."

Michael took Weevil's deck out of his duel disk and pointed his gun at it.

"NO! NOT MY BEAUTIFUL BUGS!"

"Okay Weevil, here's how this works. I ask you a question, you tell me answer, one question one answer. If I don't get the answer I want to hear we've got a problem, and if we've got a problem, your bugs have a problem."

"What do you want?"

"Where is Checkmate?"

"I… I don't know what you're talking about."

"Wrong answer…"

"You don't have the guts…"

Michael pointed his gun at the ground and fired. Now Weevil was all shook up.

"That was just a warning shot, the next one goes through your deck… Now before you kidnapped Tea, challenged Yugi to a duel, and drugged him with God knows how many hallucinogens, we were left a message by Checkmate telling us that someone who had something to do with cockroaches was going to challenge Yugi to a duel… And I can't think of anyone more fitting than you."

"Not to split hairs, but it was Checkmate's goons who did the kidnapping… Uh, I mean… oh crap."

"HA! Busted!' said Joey.

"Now I'm not going to ask you again… Where is he?"

Weevil took a long look at his precious insect cards.

"You try my patience bug boy."

"He's at the game shop known as the White King in Domino's sister city!"

"Once again… wrong answer…"

"What? No! I swear it's the truth!"

"Haven't you read the newspaper? The White King went up flames earlier today."

"But… that's where Checkmate told me to go when he gave me the cards. That's where we met him."

"We?"

"Uh… I was there with Rex Raptor and Bandit Keith."

Before another thing could be said Joey's cell phone went off.

"What is it Mai?"

"Joey, we just received one of Checkmate's messages at the hospital. What happens when a dueling monkey finds himself face to face with a giant killer robot and a hungry Tyrannosaurus?"

Joey and Michael let Weevil go when they realized he didn't have any useful information. They started making their way to the hospital to join the girls.

"He makes like a banana and splits."

"What?" asked Joey.

"The riddle asked, what happens when a dueling monkey finds himself face to face with a giant killer robot and a hungry Tyrannosaurus? I believe the answer they had in mind is, he makes like a banana and splits."

"Err…"

"I wasn't dissing you Joey, but I think that Checkmate and his goons were."

"Uh… I'll bet you a million dollars that nay minute now Rex and Keith are going to show up."

"That would make you a rich dueling monkey!"

Bandit Keith and Rex Raptor were standing there at the end of the block waiting.

"Well, well… Look what the cat dragged in, a couple of washed up has-beens." said Joey.

"Watch it blondie, if you diss me one more time I'm gonna blow your head off."

"Look, whatever's wrong with you, I don't care." said Joey "Now if you don't mind I'm going to join my friends."

"I don't think so Wheeler, if you don't duel us Checkmate will send his goons and kill them all." said Rex.

"Michael, give me the gun."

"What for?"

"Nobody threatens my little sister or my girlfriend."

"Joey, your little sister is also my girlfriend, and you know as well as I do that these hopeless saps aren't worth it."

"Oh, right."

"So are we gonna duel or not?" asked Rex.

"Whatever, I'll kick your butts and then you'll get the hell out of my life."

"Yeah, like you'll be able to beat both of us at the same time." said Keith.

"What?"

"Those are the rules, you take both of us at once or both your little sister and your b**** will pay for it."

"Alright that's it, no one calls my girlfriend a…"

"Wait Joey, I want in on this duel…"

"What?"

"I've got a hundred dollars and three rare cards for both of you, in addition you both get 2000 extra life points. Checkmate still has his duel, and you both have a better chance at winning."

"Hmm… I like it!" said Rex.

"Michael are you…"

"Joey, you know as well as I do. Even with those extra life points, they don't have a prayer."

"Alright then… Let's duel!"

"Who the hell is that?"

"According to my sources he's a card designer who happens to be dating Wheeler's sister." said Checkmate "Not exactly what I had in mind, but this should still prove interesting."

"Giving them 2000 extra life points, they don't have chance."

"Maybe, maybe not. Can Joseph Wheeler and his sister's boyfriend work together to defeat two duelists who have a grudge against him, and that have 2000 extra life points? Given that both Wheeler and his friend use warrior monsters, and that Rex and Keith use two very different types… I'd put the odds at… 45 to 55… Ladies and gentlemen... place your bets."

"Okay, I'll go first." said Michael "I play the spell card Crash Landing on a Strange Planet, by paying 1000 life points I can look at the top five cards of my deck, if any of them are monsters Elite Warrior in their names I can special summon them."

(Michael: 3000)

Michael picked up his cards.

"Well, it looks like today is my lucky day… I special summon the Elite Warriors Soltri, Roltri, and Boltri in attack mode!"

A giant space ship came falling out of the sky and crash landed on the field.

"High ho, high ho, it's off to kill we go, with hand grenades and razor blades, high ho high ho, high ho, high ho."

Three aliens emerged from the crashed ship. Joey recognized them from the machinima Michael had showed him and the others. He couldn't wait to see what these new monsters of Michael's were capable of, in the machinima one of them had managed to wipe out an entire human base while attempting to open a door.

(3x ATK: 1800 DEF: 1600)

"Hey look!" said Boltri pointing at Keith and Rex "It's the Triple Ms! Kill them! Kill them!"

"Wait, boys we can't do this."

"Why not?" asked Soltri.

"Because it wouldn't be ethical to attack them unaware?" asked Rolti "I can fix that. Hello, to the one's known as Triple M, we are here to avenge our father's honor! We will now blow you up and parade your bodies across our planet, thank you!"

"Actually it's because this is a tag duel and no one is allowed to attack on the first turn." said Michael.

"What did Triple M do to their father again?" asked Joey.

"Rainbow Squad took him prisoner but didn't know the war was over, then Triple M put him in a tutu."

"He just summoned three monsters in one turn…" thought Keith "This generous nobody may be more trouble than I thought."

Keith looked over the cards in his hand.

"I summon a monster in defense mode and end my turn."

"Defense? That's not like Keith." thought Joey "It must be some kind of trick."

Joey drew his card and looked at his hand.

"I summon Marauding Captain in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1200 DEF: 400)

"And with his special effect, I can special summon my Axe Raider!"

(ATK: 1700 DEF: 1150)

"I'll also place one card face down and end my turn."

"It's my turn!" said Rex "I special summon Gilasaurus!"

(ATK: 1400 DEF: 400)

"Since he's a dinosaur, I can sacrifice him to activate the spell card Big Evolution Pill! For the next three rounds I can now summon high level dinosaur monsters without tributes. Now I summon Sauropod Brachion!"

(ATK: 1500 DEF: 3000)

"Now I'll activate Brachion's effect, once per turn I can flip him into face down defense position. With that I end my turn."

"When Branchion is flipped face up his effect will flip all monsters into face down defense position… I know what he's doing… I play the spell card Dian Keto the Cure Master. This gives me 1000 extra life points."

(Michael: 4000)

"Oh come on! Do we shoot em or not?" asked Boltri.

"Patience boys, you'll get your chance. I'll place one card face down and end my turn."

"Err… He didn't take the bait." thought Keith "We'll let's see if they can resist this… I summon another monster in defense mode!"

"Keith playing two defense cards in a row?" thought Joey "I'll bet those are either Blast Spheres, Reflect Bounders, or both. I better not attack them. Rex's dinosaur has 3000 defense points, so none of my monsters are strong enough to scratch it, not yet anyway… I summon Command Knight in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1200 DEF: 1900)

"As long as he's on the field, all warrior type monster's on my side of the field gain 400 extra attack points!"

(Command Knight ATK: 1600)

(Marauding Captain ATK: 1600)

(Axe Raider ATK: 2100)

"And I'll leave it at that."

"You think those three wimps will protect you Wheeler?" said Rex "You're sadly mistaken. Thanks to Big Evolution Pill I can now summon my Black Tyranno!"

(ATK: 2600 DEF: 1800)

"Now I'll flip my face down Sauropod Brachion face up, now all the monsters on your side of the field are flipped into face down defense position!"

All Joey's monsters were switched to defense mode.

"And since they're all in defense mode, my Black Tyranno can attack you directly! It's dinner time!"

Rex's Black Tyranno started to charge at Joey, suddenly…

BOOM!

"What the hell?"

"Son of a *****!" exclaimed Keith.

Rex's Black Tyranno came falling out of the sky, the corpse was smoldering.

"Yay! Food!" exclaimed Michael's three monsters as they ran over and devoured the thing.

"What the… What just happened?"

"Sorry Rex Raptor, but you walked right into my trap, more specifically the trap card Trip Mine!" said Michael "When an opponent's monster attacks directly, I can use this card to destroy the attacking monster and deal 100 points of damage multiplied by that monster's level."

(Rex: 5300)

"Err… I'll end my turn by using Brachion's effect to switch it back into defense mode."

"Thanks for the save Michael." said Joey.

"Don't mention it; now let's really break the ice."

Before Michael could draw his card someone's ringtone went off. Joey's face turned red.

"Oh my gosh." laughed Michael "Joey will you shut your cell phone off?"

"Uh… This is so embarrassing, but I have to take this, Hello?"

"What the hell are you guy's doing?" asked Mai.

"Uh… We've run into a little speed bump on our way to the hospital. To be specific, Bandit Keith and Rex Raptor, they're working for Checkmate."

"Oh no, not those has-beens again."

"Well, right now Michael and I need to beat these two has-beens in a tag duel, but this shouldn't take too long…. Uh… love you."

"You hesitated there for moment, something wrong?" asked Michael.

"I'm still getting used to it. It was a few months ago our relationship got serious."

"Enough talking! On with the duel!" demanded Keith.

"Someone's eager to lose." said Michael "I activate the equip spell card Fragmentation Grenade, and equip it to Boltri."

(ATK: 2300)

"Now I'll enter my battle phase, so thanks to Boltri's effect, he gains 800 more attack points!"

(ATK: 3100)

"The Fragmentation Grenade is destroyed as soon as a monster equipped with it attacks, and then it deals damage to my opponent equal to their destroyed monster's level multiplied by 100."

"Uh oh…" said Rex.

"Boltri, attack the face down Sauropod Brachion!"

Boltri ripped off the grenade's arming pin.

"Now you will know why my nickname is Boom-Boom…"

"Just throw the darn thing!" said Soltri.

"Oh right."

BOOM!

(Rex: 4600)

The corpse of Rex's Brachion came falling down.

"Oh boy! Seconds!" exclaimed the aliens.

"Now… Soltri and Roltri, attack him directly!"

Soltri took his rifle and aimed at Rex.

"You won't escape us this time Triple M!"

"Wait! I'm Rex Raptor, I'm not Triple M!"

Soltri took his chance and fired.

"Boom! Headshot! Die Earth scum die!"

(Rex: 2800)

Next Roltri took his hammer, charged at Rex, and bashed him in the head with it.

(Rex: 1000)

"Victory!" exclaimed all three of Michael's aliens.

"Not quiet…"

"Why not?"

"He still has life points left, and we still need to take out that Triple M." said Michael pointing at Keith. But since you all attacked we're going to have to wait till next turn."

"Aww, do we have to?"

"Yes…"

"It's my turn!" said Keith "I'll one card face down and end my turn."

"Now it's my turn!" said Joey "I'll switch all my monsters back into attack mode and attack Rex directly!"

"Not so fast!" said Keith "I activate my trap card, Negate Attack! Now you're battle phase is over!"

"Uh… Thanks." said Rex.

"You can thank me by getting back in the game lizard boy!"

"Alright… I play the spell card Monster Reborn, which I'll use to resurrect my Black Tyranno!"

(ATK: 2600 DEF: 1800)

"Black Tyranno, attack Wheeler's Marauding Captain!"

(Joey: 2800)

"Minor setback. We're still in this, aren't we Michael?" asked Joey.

"I haven't even begun to fight… I play the spell card Pot of Greed, which let's me draw two cards from my deck. Next I'll summon Super Soldier Rogir in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1600)

"Second Lieutenant Rogir, reporting for duty sir!"

"Hey wait, It's a Triple M!" exclaimed Roltri.

"AH! Officer, save me!" said Rogir.

Michael got in-between the aliens and Rogir.

"What are you guys doing?"

"Killing the Triple M." replied Boltri.

"Okay… Let's take a step back for just a second… What color was the Triple M?"

"Soltri, the list."

"Currently we have concluded that the Triple M is a red, green, blue, yellow, violet, blonde, and brunette group of Japanese and or American humans that are either short or overly cocky and uses dinosaurs and or killer robots to do their bidding."

"What? Look, no attacking unless I tell you to."

"Aww man…"

"Now I'll activate Rogir's effect. Since he's a scout, I can discard two cards from my hand and then he gets to look at my opponent's hand, and at the moment I'm most curious about yours Bandit Keith."

Rogir sprinted over to Keith's side of the field, got behind him, and looked at the cards in his hand. The Rogir dashed back to Michael's side of the field and whispered something to him.

"Hmm… Interesting… In that case I'll play the continuous spell card Supply Pad."

"What does that do?"

"You'll find out soon enough, in the meantime I'll place one card face down and end my turn."

"It's my turn!" said Keith "That wimpy scout of yours may have looked at my hand, but it doesn't change a thing! I activate the spell card Power Bond, and I'll use it to fuse the Barrel Dragon and Blowback Dragon in my hand to summon Gatling Dragon with twice as many attack points!"

(ATK: 5200 DEF: 1200)

"Now I'll activate his special effect! I get to toss three coins, and for every heads that I get, I can destroy on of your monsters!"

Keith tossed three coins in the air.

"Well, it looks like today's my lucky day, I got three!"

"Uh-oh." said Michael's aliens.

"Gatling Dragon, destroy them!"

BUDDA-BUDDA-BUDDA-BUDDA-BUDDA

"Now, attack his wimpy blue monster!"

"I activate the trap card, Armor Lock! By discarding one card from my hand, I can save Rogir and cut the damage to my life points in half!"

Before the blast reached Rogir he punched the ground with his fist, then he was enveloped in am energy field. The attack hit, but he was unharmed.

(Michael: 2300)

"I love this armor." said Rogir.

"And now Keith, since you used Power Bond, you take damage equal to your monster's original attack points."

(Keith: 3400)

"Man… That thing has over 5000 attack points, my monsters don't come close to that."

"Don't worry Joey, I'll take it out on my next turn." said Michael "You take care of Rex."

"Hmm… Okay, I sacrifice Axe Raider and Command Knight to summon the Red Eyes Black Dragon!"

(ATK: 2400 DEF: 2000)

"I'll also place one card face down and call it a turn."

"Err… You've got a lot of gall summoning that monster against me." said Rex "I summon Gagagigo in attack mode! But he won't be staying for long because now I'm activating Ultra-Evolution Pill! By tributing Gagagigo I can now summon Ultimate Tyranno!"

(ATK: 3000 DEF: 2200)

"Ultimate Tyranno, attack!"

"I don't think so Rex, I activate Draining Shield!"

(Joey: 5800)

"Well dodge this! Black Tyranno, attack!"

"I don't need to dodge it, I activate Metalmorph! This increases my Red Eyes' attack points by 300, just enough to beat your overgrown lizard!"

(ATK: 2700)

Joey's Red Eyes countered and blew Rex's monster away.

(Rex: 900)

"Now it's my turn!" said Michael "Since I have only one card in my hand, my Supply Pad lets me draw two cards from my deck. Next I activate the spell card Zambai 7 Roll Call, this let's me look at the top five cards of my deck for the small price of 1000 life points, and if any of the cards I pick up have Super Soldier in their names, then I can special summon them."

(Michael: 1300)

"I special summon Super Soldiers Willy, Hammer, Meme, and Triple M!"

All four of Michael's monster's appeared on the field.

(4x ATK: 1800 DEF: 1600)

"Hey everybody, the 5th semi-mechanized infantry battalion is in the hiz-ouse!" said Triple M.

"Too bad none of these guys was the one I was looking for." thought Michael.

Willy charged over to Rex and pointed his shotgun at him.

"Alright little man, where is Spriggs?"

"What the heck are you talking about?"

"Willy, get back over here." said Hammer.

Just then all of Michael's monsters noticed the powered up Gatling Dragon on Keith's side of the field and Rex's Ultimate Tyranno.

"Guys… I don't want this to sound pessimistic, but I'm pretty sure we're all gonna die." said Hammer.

"Nicely done." said Meme.

"Looks like we're out of options. If I'm going out, then I'm going out like a man!"

As he said this Willy put a bigger ammo clip on his shotgun.

"Get ready to open fire, today is a good day to die!"

"Wait! I think today is actually a good day to retreat!" said Triple M.

"That won't be necessary guys." said Michael "I place one card face down, and then play the spell card Emergency Card Stash! Now I can draw six new cards from my deck… Paydirt! I activate the spell card Obibital Bombardment!"

"Don't you mean Orbital Bombardment?" asked Joey.

"Look at the card."

"Holy crap, it does say Obibital!"

"Anyway, this spell card let's me destroy one monster on the field, and I choose Gatling Dragon!"

A huge plasma burst came falling out of the sky and blew Keith's dragon into nothingness.

"You gotta be kidding me!"

"Since your Gatling Dragon was a level 8 monster I had to discard three cards from my hand, but it was well worth the price because now Obibital Bombardment's second effect kicks in, when it successfully destroys a monster, you take damage equal to your monster's original attack or defense points, whichever one is higher."

(Keith: 800)

"Next I'll activate my face down spell card Cost Down! By discarding one card, I can reduce the level of all monsters in my hand by 2. Now I'll sacrifice Rogir to summon my most powerful monster… Super Soldier Spriggs!"

Rogir vanished, and a soldier wearing red armor appeared to take his place.

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000)

"What? Spriggs!" exclaimed Willy pulling out a rocket launcher "Don't summon him! I'll kill him!"

"NO!" exclaimed the rest of Michael's monsters.

"Willy… Put away the rocket launcher." said Hammer "If you don't, we will have to face a giant dinosaur."

"Yeah, I've survived worse."

"Willy, who would you rather attack? The two enemies over there... or Spriggs?"

Willy collapsed

"Willy? Willy?"

"Oh no… I think he's having another seizure… His tiny brain just overloaded."

"Meme, do your thing." said Michael.

Meme bent over Willy and started doing her best to revive him.

"Clear!"

Willy sat up after the jolt of electricity went through his body.

"Woah… Where am I?"

"Michael, you might want to hurry and wrap this up." said Meme "I think Willy is going to be difficult today."

"Okay, first I'll activate Meme's special effect, which let's me a draw one more card from my deck. Next I'll activate Spriggs' special effect."

Spriggs took out a sniper rifle, got down on one knee, and took aim at one of Keith's face down monsters.

"For every card in my hand that I discard, Spriggs can destroy one card on the field, and I'll discard the only two cards in my hand to destroy both your monsters! Alright Spriggs, take your shot."

When Spriggs shot at the first of Keith's monster's it was revealed to be a Blast Sphere. Then the second monster was revealed to be a Reflect Bounder, it was taken out with a headshot.

"Fortunately for you, since I used Spriggs' effect I have to skip my battle phase. Joey, they're all yours."

"No problem Michael."

"Hey you $&*%#^s, it's my turn!" said Keith.

"Whatever, just make your move."

"I summon a monster in defense mode and end my turn."

"I'll bet it's another Blast Sphere or Reflect Bounder." said Joey "But it won't do you any good because I play the spell card Nobleman of Crossout!"

"Oh no!"

"Oh yes… This spell card destroys one face down monster and removes it from play. Next I'll summon Gearfried the Iron Knight!"

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1600)

"Gearfried, attack Keith's life points directly!"

(Keith: 0)

"Now Red Eyes, attack Rex's Ultimate Tyranno! And don't forget, since he's equipped with Metalmorph, he gains attack points equal half your own monster's attack points!"

(ATK: 4200)

"And that's just enough to take out the rest of your life points!"

Joey's Red Eyes blew Rex's Ultimate Tyranno Away.

(Rex: 0)

Keith and Rex spent about three minutes on their knees.

"Err… You cocky *******, I'll kill you!"

Keith pulled out his gun.

BANG!

Keith's gun fell from his hand. Michael drew his faster.

"YOU SHOT ME! YOU SON OF A ***** YOU SHOT SHOT ME!"

BANG!"

Keith was on ground now. He was still alive, but in pain.

"Was that really necessary?"

"He was going to shoot us."

"I know." laughed Joey "But you shot him twice."

"Did you hear what he called my mother? That woman is a saint. Besides, I think he'll live… Where do you think you're going Raptor?"

Rex froze one the spot.

"Uh… I'm sorry, I was just kidding about the whole kill your friends thing! You know I really respect you and I was hoping maybe we could be friend or something!" he said waving his hands frantically.

"Oh really… Up against the wall moron."

"Hmm… Well my friends it seems that I'm out of pawns… Time to call in the big guns."

Checkmate took out a disposable cell phone and started dialing.

"Hello… I have a job for you."

**(To be continued)**

**Coming up next… It's the moment you've all been waiting for…**

**Yugi vs. Me!**

**All Michael's cards can now be seen on deviantart.**


	9. Who the heck is this?

It took about three days for Yugi to recover from his duel with Weevil. Remarkably none of Checkmate's goons had come to challenge him during that time. It wasn't until the doctors finally gave him a clean bill of health that they received another of Checkmate's messages.

Wouldn't it be ironic if Yugi Moto's career ended the way it began?

"What the heck does that mean?" asked Joey.

"Well… It depends what he means by career." said Michael "Does he mean his career as the King of Games or dueling in general?"

"Yugi's career as the King of Games began when he defeated Pegasus at Duelist Kingdom." said Mai.

"Somehow I doubt Mr. Pegasus would be willing to play Checkmates game, unless he had the power to raise people from the dead."

"Pegasus is dead?" asked Joey.

"Not Pegasus… His wife, remember?" said Tea.

"No…"

"Yugi wasn't a well known duelist until he defeated Seto Kaiba for the first time… Am I right?" asked Serenity.

"Yes… I think it's a safe bet that Kaiba still wants to be the number one ranked duelist in the world. He may just have been lying low all this time trying to find a way to defeat Yugi, but I don't know what Checkmate could do to make him be one of his game pieces… unless they kidnap his little brother."

"If Kaiba's little brother had been kidnapped again I think it would have been all over the news by now."

"Which get's us where?"

"One more thing, where the hell are Duke and Tristan?" said Tea "We texted them when Yugi was hospitalized three days ago and they never texted us back nor visited."

Meanwhile Duke and Tristan were still at Duke's place 'coping with defeat'.

"I… can't… feel my liver." said Tristan.

"You're telling me… you can't handle a bottle?"

"Duke, that was like our third keg…"

"I don't think so… There's still… I dunno… three twos or… something… left."

"Forget it… I'm over… Its game over man… game over!"

"Oh you better not puke on my new carpet."

Hearing this Tristan ran over to the bathroom. After about ten minutes Duke stumbled over to the bathroom to check on him.

"Eww… Where did you find gummy bears?"

"Uh… Now I'm hungry… Do you have any more of that pizza?"

"No… But I… maybe I could… what do you call it… order some more…"

"Dude… you ever notice how your hands are like… I don't know… your feet your arms dude?"

"Yeah…"

"I wonder what they have for socks and shoes…"

"Oh I know man… gloves…"

By the time Yugi out of the hospital the sun was setting off in the distance. It was almost completely gone by the time they made it back to the shop.

"Uh… guys… Where did that car come from?"

Before anyone could answer Tea's question someone with brown hair came jumping to the ground from the shop's roof. He was wearing what looked like a black version of Kaiba's jacket, a black shirt, blue jeans, heavy looking shin guards, pronged gauntlets on his arms, and a golden cross around his neck.

"Does anyone know who or what this is?" asked Mai.

"I don't know, but I'll bet he knows one hell of a tailor."

"So… We meet at last Yugi Moto."

"Uh… Who are you?"

"You can call me Chad."

"Chad… Chad… I've never heard of a duelist named Chad." said Joey.

"I didn't think so… I've come all the way from the United States, the Hoosier state to be precise, to duel you Yugi."

"The Hoosier state?"

"Indiana." said Tea.

"Oh, you mean the place where the University of Notre Dame is?"

"Yes, my daddy's old alma mater. Unfortunately I just didn't have the money nor the grades to follow in his footsteps, but my parents were just glad I made it through high school and my first year of college, but the grotto of our Lady of Lourdes is an excellent place to pray."

"Was your father a football player?"

"Don't make me laugh."

"Is this guy really one of Checkmate's goons?" whispered Tea to Yugi "He hasn't threatened to kill any of us, in fact he's making small talk with us and telling us about where he lives."

"So are we going to duel or what?"

"Before I agree Chad, why is it you came all the way from the states to duel me?"

"I received an anonymous phone call telling me I would get five millions dollars if I did. And believe me I need the money."

"Hmm… Okay, I accept your challenge."

"Excellent, but not here, I know a better place."

Chad got into his car, drove off, and the others followed him. They kept driving for what seemed like an hour and a half. By the time they stopped they were far outside the city limits and the sun had set. They were standing in an open field.

"Why did you bring us all the way out here?"

"So we could see the stars."

"Okay…"

"Before we duel Yugi Moto I think there is something you should know…"

"What?"

"You rely on your friends to get you through the tough times, do you not?"

"Maybe… What's it to you?"

"… I don't have those kinds of friends. So far over the course of my life only one person has been there for me when needed. Only one person got me through high school and my first year of college. Save for that person I am in many ways alone. Can you guess who that person is?"

"Who?"

Chad pointed up at sky.

"In our modern world there are so many non believers, as a result our world has plunged into chaos, but I am believer, because without him I would have never made it this far. Compared to the rest of the universe I am but a subatomic speck, utterly insignificant, but still he answered me when I called him, and to this day he guides me. I don't have much, but I owe everything to God."

"Are you guys gonna duel or not?" asked Mai.

"Oh, but of course. I'm ready when you are Yugi."

Yugi could see the duelist aura around Chad. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was certainly some kind of great power waiting in his deck. This would prove to be an interesting match.

"I'm ready Chad."

"Okay then…"

"Let's duel!"

"Who the heck is that guy?"

"He's the best duelist I could find whose uses the kind of deck I'm looking for." said Checkmate.

"An unknown duelist from the Hoosier state?"

"There aren't many duelists who still use the kind of deck that he does. It isn't easy to build one. But this duelist has been persistent and patient in that department, and now his seeds are bearing fruit."

"So what is so special about his deck?"

"You'll see my friends... Can Yugi Moto be defeated by a duelist he knows nothing about, and can his dueling career be brought to an end the same way it began? I'd put the odds at… 50/50."

"Oh… So we've got ourselves a Mexican standoff!"

"Precisely… Ladies and gentlemen… place your bets."

"In what way is this duel ironic?" asked Tea "None of us have ever heard of this guy before, so Yugi's dueling career certainly didn't begin with him."

"It must be something in his deck." said Michael "The question is… what is it?"

"We'll soon find out." said Mai.

"If you don't mind Yugi, I'll make the first move."

"Be my guest."

Yugi didn't know a thing about this guy, if he went second there was a better chance he would be able to tell what kind of cards Chad would use.

"I play the spell card Scapegoat, this let's me special summon four scapegoat tokens to the field in defense mode."

(4x ATK: 0 DEF: 0)

"I'll also place one card face down and end my turn."

"Huh? Scapegoat and one face down card?"

"I know Joey. It's a very unusual opening move." said Mai.

"What do you think he's doing Michael?" asked Serenity.

"I'll need to see more off his cards before I can be sure."

"Hmm… four scapegoat tokens and one face down card… That face down card could be a trap, but I don't think Chad would waste a good card at the start of the duel just to protect four monster tokens that can't attack or be sacrificed."

Yugi looked at the cards in his hand.

"I play the continuous spell card Spell Economics, as long as this card stays in play I don't need to pay life points to activate a spell card. Next I'll activate my Dark Magic Curtain, which let's me special summon the Dark Magician from my deck!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2100)

"Summoning your deck's headliner on your very first turn… impressive."

"You haven't seen anything yet, next I'll play the spell card Diffusion Wave-Motion! Now my Dark Magician can attack all your Scapegoat token's at once!"

"I expected nothing less from the King of Games, which is why I played this card face down… Alchemy Cycle!"

"What?"

"Now the original attack of all the monsters I have out becomes 0 for the duration of the turn."

"But the scapegoat tokens already have 0 attack points." said Joey.

All four of Chad's scapegoat tokens were destroyed by the Dark Magician's attack.

"Whenever a monster affected by Alchemy Cycle is destroyed by battle and sent to the graveyard, I get to draw a card from my deck, and since you destroyed all four of my Scapegoat tokens I get to draw four cards. But I must say I'm impressed Yugi, normally a move like that would have taken ¾ of your life points, but you didn't have to pay a single one."

"Wait a minute, he has eight cards in his hand, isn't that against the rules?" asked Serenity.

"Sis, the rules say that during your End Phase you're only allowed to hold six cards in your hand, but it's not Chad's turn at the moment."

"Oh…"

Serenity learned more about the game from the time she spent with Michael, but there were a few things that were still Greek to her.

"It's my turn, and I think I'll start by playing three trap cards face down."

"Three trap cards? Either that's a really big bluff, or this guy's lost it." said Mai.

"What do you mean?" asked Serenity.

"When you play face down cards, you never have to say if they're trap card or spell cards."

"Next I'll play the spell card Allure of Darkness, this let's me draw two cards from my deck, but then I have to take one dark attribute monster from my hand and remove it from play, if I can't then I have to discard my entire hand… The card I'll remove is the Cat of Ill Omen. Finally I'll summon a monster in defense mode and end my turn."

"Why would he tell me what his face down cards are? I'll bet he's bluffing, but I better play it safe for right now… I play the spell card Pot of Greed, this let's me draw two cards from my deck."

"Thank you Yugi, you just activated my trap card, Appropriate! From now on whenever you draw cards outside of your draw phase, I get to draw two cards from my deck."

"Well… that could've been worse." said Joey.

"I special summon Watapon!"

(ATK: 200 DEF: 300)

"Now I'll sacrifice it so I can summon the Dark Magician Girl!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1700)

"Wow, she is cuter in person."

The Dark Magician Girl blushed.

"I may not know what his two other face down cards are, but this spell card ought to do the trick. Then I can destroy his face down monster with the Dark Magician Girl, and then attack him directly with the Dark Magician… I activate the spell card Dark Magic Attack! When the Dark Magician is in play I can use this card to destroy all spells and traps on your side of the field."

"I knew you'd try to destroy my cards Yugi, which is why one of my face down cards is Dark Bribe."

"What does that do?" asked Joey.

"It let's me negate the activation of one of Yugi's spell our trap card, but there is a little something in it for you too Yugi, now you get to draw an extra card from your deck, which activates my Appropriate, allowing me to draw two more cards. Now there's only one trap card left. Feeling lucky?"

"That last trap card of his could be a lethal one… but after seeing the cards he's used already he's probably bluffing… Dark Magician Girl, attack his face down monster!"

Chad didn't activate his last trap card, he just let his defense monster be destroyed.

"When Deep Diver is sent to the graveyard as a result of battle, I can take one monster card in my deck and place that card on the top."

"So on his next turn he'll have access to any monster from his deck?"

"I'm not sure it will matter. If it's a high level monster he won't have anything on the field to sacrifice." said Michael.

"Dark Magician, attack his life points directly!"

"I don't think so Yugi, I active the trap card Defense Draw!"

The Dark Magician's attack hit, but nothing happened.

"This card let's me reduce the damage from one of your attacks to zero, and I also get to draw another card."

"Okay… what is he doing?"

"I don't know Serenity, all he's done is draw cards and play defense."

"I activate two copies of the spell card Dark World Dealings, this forces us both to draw one card from our decks and then discard one card from our hands, and since you're drawing outside your draw phase twice Yugi, my Appropriate let's me draw four more cards. Next I'll activate the spell card Hand Destruction, now we both need to discard two cards from our hands, but then we both get to draw two new cards, which once again activates my Appropriate, allowing me to draw two more cards. Next I'll place one card face down, summon a monster in defense mode, and end my turn."

"Wait a minute… I've seen this before!"

"Joey's right!" thought Yugi "If I don't do something before it's too late."

Yugi drew his card.

"Perfect! I activate Card Destruction! This forces both of us to discard our entire hands and draw the same number of cards we were holding. You draw six cards and I get to draw three."

"You're wrong about one thing Yugi, since you just drew outside your draw phase my Appropriate let's me draw two more cards."

"Yes, but I don't think it really matters, since my Card Destruction probably just ruined the whole game for you."

"What do you mean Yugi?"

"It's simple Tea, I deduced what the riddle meant about this being ironic."

He looked at Chad with a big smirk on his face.

"You were trying to complete Exodia weren't you?"

"Yes."

"Well you can't do it unless you have all five cards in your hand, and I'm willing to bet I just sent three of them to the graveyard."

"Wait a minute, what just happened?"

"It's really simple Serenity." said Michael "Normally to win a duel you need to reduce your opponent's life points to 0, but there are a few special ways to win a duel, one is to summon Exodia the Forbidden One, but he can only be summoned by having all five Forbidden One cards in your hand."

"And Yugi's Card Destruction just sent Chad's entire hand to the graveyard, if he was going for Exodia, that's gotta hurt." said Mai.

"So are you going to give up now that I've taken out your prized monster?" asked Yugi.

"Christ didn't give up when he continuously stumbled under the heavy burden of the cross, and neither will I."

"Very well… Dark Magician, attack his face down monster!"

The Dark Magician blasted Chad's face down monster.

"When Sangan is sent to the graveyard, I can bring one monster with 1500 attack points or less from my deck and add it to my hand."

A hologram started to appear behind Chad.

"There! It's Exodia!"

"Calm down Joey." said Michael "It's just the head and torso, he must've used Sangan's effect to bring it to his hand."

Exodia's head and torso sat there floating in the air behind Chad, but Yugi wasn't intimidated.

"Dark Magician Girl, attack his life points directly!"

(Chad: 2000)

"There's no such thing as a life without hardship Yugi, not even for the son of God, so I didn't expect one either."

"Are they having a duel or a mass?" asked Mai.

"I don't think it matters how much he talks about God, Yugi sent most of his Forbidden One cards to the graveyard, so he can't summon Exodia."

"Hey Exodia, what's wrong? You look a little dis-armed and de-feeted!" said Tea.

Yugi's friends all started laughing, but Chad didn't seem to care.

"Yugi Moto, I'm not that rare hunter you fought in Battle City, a duelist like me is prepared for these situations."

"Say what?" exclaimed Joey.

"When you defeated Seto Kaiba for the first time using Exodia I saw my path to power, power I would use to escape a boring life of normality in the Hoosier state. Since then I've made it my goal to build the ultimate Exodia deck."

"Uh… Don't you have any other plans for your life?"

"Well yes, now that you mention it I want to be a world famous fictional story writer. I plan on writing a story that's bigger than Harry Potter and Twilight combined. But in the meantime I'm going to be the duelist who defeated Yugi Moto, and all that free publicity will make my books fly off the shelf."

"And here I thought you were going to be a priest." said Mai.

"Not to discourage people from joining the priesthood Ms. Valentine, but you only live once, and there are certain things I want to do that a priest can't do."

"Such as."

"Simple, priests aren't allowed to marry."

"Uh… I hate to interrupt this spirited conversation." said Tea "But aren't you guys in the middle of a duel?"

"Oh right… Yugi, I believe it's still your turn."

"Alright, I'll place one card face down and end my turn."

"Yugi hasn't stopped me from completing Exodia, he's only delayed the inevitable."

Chad drew his card.

"I activate the trap card Backup Soldier! Since there are more than five monsters in my graveyard, I can take up to three normal monsters with 1500 attack points or less from my graveyard and add them to my hand, and I'm pretty sure you know which ones I want."

Behind Chad the hologram of Exodia started to shine. It's legs and one of it's arms had appeared on the creature.

"Impressive, but it looks like you're one card short." said Yugi.

"Not for long. I activate my third and final Dark World Dealings, now we both draw one card from our decks and discard one card from our hands, but since I still have Appropriate in play I get to draw two more cards…"

Chad smiled.

"Here it comes! I activate the spell card Monster Reincarnation! By discarding one card from my hand I can bring one monster card from my graveyard back to my hand!"

The as Chad reached for his graveyard the final limb of Exodia started to form, and the chains that bound Exodia's other limbs started to break.

"YUGI!"

"I activate Lightforce Sword!"

"What!"

"This trap randomly attacks one card in your hand and prevents you from play until your fourth standby phase after this card's activation!"

The sword flew at Chad's hand and struck one of his cards, then it bounced off and went into one of the links on the chain for Exodia's right leg just as the left arm appeared. The Forbidden One struggled against the chain that bound it to the ground, but it was futile.

"Err… You're not the only one with magic swords Yugi… I activate the spell card Swords of Revealing Light!"

The Swords froze the Dark Magician and the Dark Magician Girl where they stood, but Yugi didn't seem phased by it at all.

"I'll end my turn by playing one card face down one the field."

Yugi was still smiling when he drew his card, but if he tried to destroy Chad's swords then he would just counter with his second Dark Bribe.

"What are you so happy about Yugi? Got a secret plan to defeat my ultimate monster?"

"As a matter of fact, I do have a secret or two."

"Oh yeah, such as?"

"The game is up Chad, there are no more cards left in your deck."

"Oh come on, you don't really think I'm going to fall for that trick."

"It's not a trick. You have forty cards in your deck do you not?"

"Yes."

"Thanks to your Appropriate cards in some cases, there was five cards at the start of the duel, one for your first Draw Phase, four for your Alchemy Cycle, one for your second Draw Phase, two for the Allure of Darkness, two for my Pot of Greed, two for your Dark Bribe, one for your Defense Draw, one for your third Draw Phase, three for your first Dark World Dealings, three for the second, four for the Hand Destruction, six for my Card Destruction, one for Sangan, one for your fourth draw phase, and three for your third Dark World Dealings."

"That's not forty."

"5+1+4+1+2+2+2+1+1+3+3+4+6+1+1+3." said Yugi "My turn is over."

"Five plus one plus four plus… What was it again?" asked Joey.

Chad looked down at his deck, true to Yugi's words there were no cards left for him to draw.

"Well this is embarrassing."

The hologram of Exodia disappeared behind him.

"Ugh… Well that was fun, who's up for some frosty chocolate milkshakes?"

"You're not mad?" asked Yugi.

"God answers all prayers Yugi Moto, sometimes he says yes, sometimes he says no. Sometimes he calms the storms, sometimes he calms his child. Believe me I know this better than most. Besides it was all in good fun. Good game everybody, G.G. man G.G."

"Now that he mentions it, a chocolate milkshake does sound pretty good right now." said Serenity.

"I'm buying!" said Michael.

"Hmm… Well my friends, it seems little Yugi has emerged victorious yet again."

"Who are you sending next?"

"You'll see…"

Checkmate started dialing on yet another disposable cell phone.

"Black Team, did you acquire it?"

"Kaiba Corp security is tough, so we had to break a few eggs, but we got it."

"Excellent, bring it back to base, we need Yugi's next opponent to be ready by tomorrow night."

Checkmate ended the call and dialed another number.

"White Team, were you successful?"

"Yes sir, we found the girl where you told us she would be."

"Bring her to me at one, and no one is allowed to touch her, if she tells me she's been violated in any way, I'll have you and your entire team emasculated… literally."

"Uh… Yes sir… Is she for you?"

"No, she's for a friend of mine."

**(To be continued)**

**New illustration available on deviantart: The Anime Me!**


	10. Checkmate's Gift

Today had been a good day for one Jason Smith. He had gotten an A+ on his history test, and tonight his girlfriend had kissed him while they were at the movies. He had just made it home and was in his room when his cell phone started ringing.

"Hello?"

"You are Jason Smith are you not?"

"Yes…"

"Good, I think you should know that there is a dead body and suitcase of cocaine in the trunk of your car. You should also know that I have taken the liberty of informing the authorities about it. I'd estimate you have about fifteen minutes before they show up, and you do twenty to life, so I suggest you get moving."

"Wha… What the hell are you talking about?"

"Real simple kid, cops are coming, there's a dead body and suitcase of Columbian bam bam in your car. Time to make like hockey sticks and get the puck outta there."

Checkmate hung up yet another one of his disposable phones and told his minions to dispose of it. He and his fellow gamblers were eager to see if an innocent teenager could outrun the authorities if properly motivated.

"Who is that kid exactly?"

"No idea, I just picked him at random from the database."

"Whose body did you use?"

"Do remember last night's show?"

"Yes, we were betting on who would win in a game of dodgeball, a team of people who were drunk versus a team of people on marijuana."

"One of the drunken players died of alcohol poisoning, now if you'll excuse me I have some business to attend to before tonight's show."

Checkmate went down to the lower levels where he had been keeping his new guest. If Yugi passed tonight's little test he would need to make preparations for the final test. He ordered his guards to stand aside and went inside.

"Hello my dear. I really must apologize for the means of your extraction and the accommodations, but I'm sure you'll forgive me when this is all over."

"Who are you? What do want from me?"

"It's not what I want from you, it's what I want for you. As for who I am, just know that I am a man that knows what you want and can help you get it… Tell me my dear… would you like to meet Seto Kaiba?"

"Excuse me?"

"My dear there are no secrets that are safe from a man of my resources. I know that even though Seto Kaiba doesn't know you exist, you've been in love with him for a very long time. I know that you just can't explain it, but somehow you know the two of you are meant to be, but alas you come from an entirely different class of people, and you have never had the means to meet him, nor do you think he would want you even if you did… I can help you there, if you let me."

"Guys… We got another one!" said Joey.

Yugi had received a letter in the mail at about 8pm. There was no return address and the stamp had a white chess king on it, which could only mean it was from Checkmate. When they opened it there was another riddle printed on it.

**If the previous duel wasn't ironic enough for you, then how about this?**

"So what the heck does that mean?" asked Tea.

"Last time Checkmate tried to make the duel ironic by attempting to have Yugi beat by the same monster he used to defeat Kaiba for the first time, which is how he first gained renown as a duelist." said Michael "So we now we must ask ourselves, what would be more ironic than that?"

"Yugi lost Exodia when that little maggot Weevil threw those cards into the sea when they were on the boat to Duelist Kingdom, which is ancient history." said Mai.

"Maybe Checkmate is going to try to beat me with a duelist who uses my favorite card?" suggested Yugi.

"Wait… In Battle City, didn't you beat a duelist who used a Dark Magician deck right after you beat a duelist who used an Exodia deck?"

"Yes."

"Seems ironic enough for me." said Joey.

"Maybe, but I'm not so sure…" replied Michael "Exodia cards are so rare that most duelists don't own a single piece. Building a good deck centered on the Dark Magician would be expensive, but no where near as difficult."

"What's your point?"

"I'm saying it's odd to send one of the most powerful monsters in the game at Yugi and then follow up with something like the Dark Magician."

"So what were you thinking Michael?" asked Serenity.

"What if he meant he's going to try to beat Yugi not with one of his favorite monsters, but one of his best monsters?"

Before anyone could respond to Michael's question the lights went out.

"Not again!"

"Nobody move!"

Yugi and the others heard doors bursting open and felt people rushing past them. For a moment everything was quiet, and then they felt the same people racing out the way they came. When the lights came back on everyone was standing where they had been.

"What just happened?"

"They didn't take any of us, so they must've taken… something else."

"Oh no!"

Yugi ran back into his room already knowing what he would find. The box that contained his three Egyptian god cards was empty.

"This is bad… very bad."

"We can't let them get away with those cards!"

"Then I suggest you come and get us."

Yugi and the others ran to the window. Outside there were at least a dozen men, half of them were dressed head to toe in white body armor, the rest were wearing black armor.

"Checkmate's goons."

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious Michael." said Mai.

"Give me back the god cards!" demanded Yugi "They're too dangerous!"

"You want em, come and get em."

Yugi grabbed his deck and duel disk and ran outside after Checkmate's men. They started running down the block and got into a car, Yugi and Tea went with Mai in her car and Joey rode along with Michael and Serenity. Checkmate's goons were going fast, but not so fast that they couldn't follow.

"Why do I have a feeling they're leading us into a trap." said Joey.

Checkmate's men finally stopped at the carnival that had just come into town, it wasn't scheduled to open until next week, but the black and white pawns ran inside anyway.

"They went into the house of mirrors!"

Even with the lights on, the inside of the house of mirrors was very eerie. Yugi and the others made their way through the maze of mirror lined walls, everyone could feel that something bad was coming, but they didn't know what.

"Why did they bring us to house of mirrors?" asked Serenity.

"We'll soon find out."

When Yugi and the others finally made it out, they found themselves standing in the middle of the carnival, but there was no one around, or at least not that they could see.

"Yugi… how good of you to join us."

Yugi and the others turned around, there was someone standing there in the shadow of a nearby tent.

"Give me back the god cards!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that. I don't think you're worthy of owning these cards partner… or should I call you pretender?"

"Who are you?"

"It's hasn't even been a full year and already you've forgotten about me?"

He started to step out of the shadows.

"No… It can't be!" said Tea.

"ATEM!"

"What the… two Yugi's!" exclaimed Michael.

Joey had already debriefed Mai on most of the details after he moved in, but since Serenity and Michael were still in the dark the others decided to spill the beans.

"Okay…"

"What? Okay? You're not confused by any of this?" asked Joey.

"I design cards for Mr. Pegasus. When I was first hired he debriefed me on the origin of Duel Monsters."

"Well now that we're all up to speed, you and I have some unfinished business Yugi… You and I are going to duel!"

"Atem is gone." said Yugi sounding angry "I watched him depart to the afterlife."

"Well, I've decided to come back. I've been watching you from the other side, and I confess myself disappointed. I should have known you would never be able to protect our friends, much less the world, by yourself. And when I defeat you in this duel I will banish you to the Shadow Realm!"

"Your empty threats don't scare me! You're just one of Checkmate's goons defiling the memory of my friend! And for that you're going to pay!"

"Then what are you waiting for?"

"Let's duel!"

"So my friends, do you think Yugi Moto can beat an exact copy of his deck and his own Egyptian god cards?" asked Checkmate "Ladies and gentlemen… place your bets."

"Since you're clearly at a disadvantage Yugi, I'll let you go first."

"Fine by me! I'll summon a monster in defense mode and end my turn."

"That's it? I knew your victory over me in Egypt was just hoax. I play Polymerization, with this I can fuse the Berfomet and Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts in my hand and summon Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast!"

(ATK: 2100 DEF: 1800)

"Chimera, destroy his face down monster!"

Chimera attacked, but Yugi's monster wasn't destroyed.

"Sorry, but my Marshmallon can't be destroyed in battle, and when this face down card is attacked you take 1000 points of damage!"

(Atem: 3000)

"Very well… I'll place one card face down on the field and end my turn."

Yugi drew his card.

"I summon Silent Swordsman LV 3 in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 1000)

"I guess you can't read Yugi, that monster only has 1000 attack points, and my Chimera has 2100."

"I know, that's why I'm playing the spell card Level Up! This immediately upgrades my LV 3 Swordsman to LV 5!"

(ATK: 2300 DEF: 1000)

"Silent Swordsman, attack!"

Silent Swordsman sliced Chimera in half.

(Atem: 2800)

"I activate the trap card Soul Rope! When one of my monsters is destroyed I can use this card to special summon a level 4 monster from my deck for the small price of 1000 life points."

(Atem: 1800)

"I special summon the Mystical Elf!"

(ATK: 800 DEF: 2000)

"And since you destroyed my Chimera, I can special summon one of the monsters I used to summon it, and I choose Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts!"

(ATK: 1500 DEF: 1200)

Yugi had a bad feeling about this, his opponent had reduced his life points to less than half for a monster that couldn't protect him from his swordsman.

"I'll place one card face down and end my turn."

"Good now I can start ending you!"

"I don't understand, this isn't like Atem at all." said Joey.

"That's not Atem." said Tea.

"What do you mean?"

"Atem is gone Joey, you and I both saw it happen, and I can tell just by looking in his eyes."

"This is the beginning of the end Yugi! By discarding one card from my hand, I can special summon the Tricky!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1200)

"Next I activate the spell card, Emergency Card Stash! Since there are no other cards in my hand, I can now draw six cards from my deck! Next I'll activate the spell card Magical Stone Excavation, by discarding two cards from my hand I can bring back one spell card I've used. Now I'll place two cards face down and sacrifice all three of my monsters to summon my Egyptian god card, SLIFER THE SKY DRAGON!"

Michael had never seen an Egyptian god monster with his own eyes, normally he would have been awestruck, but unfortunately it was in the hands of Yugi's opponent.

"This is not good." said Mai.

"Actually, I don't think this will be a problem." said Michael "Slifer's attack points are equal to the number of cards in its owner's hand times 1000, and at the moment Yugi's opponent has only one card in his hand."

(ATK: 1000)

"It may be an Egyptian god monster, but it has only 1000 attack points!" said Yugi "Even my weakest monsters can destroy it!"

"You should know me better than that Yugi… I was the only who really defeated Maximillion Pegasus, Kaiba, and all the others while you were just watching on the side lines. I guess it's time I reminded you just how powerful I am, I activate the spell card Breath of Slifer!"

"There's no such card!"

"Then what's this?"

"What?"

"Oh no…" said Michael "It's just as Mr. Pegasus feared… Checkmate has people in his company!"

"This spell card an only be activated when Slifer the Sky Dragon is on the field, now I can destroy every monster on your side of the field, in your hand, and in your deck that has 2000 attack points or less!"

"What?"

"Every card?"

Slifer opened it's second mouth and fired a blast that struck Yugi's Marshmallon, a card in his hand, and then his deck.

"Without those weaker monsters you won't be able to use them as sacrifices for your stronger monsters. However, there are some serious drawbacks to using this… First I have to discard my entire hand, which isn't a problem since I used up all the cards in my hand already, next I have to skip my next three draw phases."

"But… That would mean that Slifer's attack points will be 0 for the next three turns!"

"Normally that would be the case, except when I played Magical Stone Excavation I got a spell card back from my graveyard and placed it on the field, and the card I picked was Emergency Card Stash, which I can use to draw six cards from my hand! And don't forget, Slifer gains 1000 attack points for every card in my hand!"

(ATK: 6000)

"Okay… see previous, this is bad… very bad."

"Slifer, attack and destroy his Silent Swordsman!"

"I don't think so! I activate my face down Magical Hats! This let's me bring two non-monster cards from my deck and place them in the Magical Hat's with one of my monsters."

"Do you honestly think you can defeat my god card with a simple carnival trick?"

"The real Atem and I used this trick on numerous occasions." replied Yugi "Now are you going to attack or not?"

"Very well… Slifer, attack the hat on the left!"

Slifer blasted the left hat, but Yugi's Swordsman wasn't there.

"Sorry, but the card you destroyed was a Magic Formula, and whenever this card is sent from the field to the graveyard I gain 1000 life points."

(Yugi: 5000)

"But it wasn't in the spell/trap card zone." said Serenity.

"Doesn't matter." said Michael "It just says from the field to the graveyard, it's a legitimate strategy."

"And now that your Battle Phase is over my other card goes to the graveyard as well, and guess what, it's another Magic Formula!"

(Yugi: 6000)

"All the extra life points in the world won't protect you from the omnipotent wrath of Slifer!"

"Okay, that just sounded cheesy." said Tea.

"Well, there is still the fact that all Yugi's low level monsters have all been sent to the graveyard, and even if he manages to special summon them from the graveyard, Slifer's second mouth will blow them away."

Yugi drew his card.

"I activate the spell card Pot of Avarice! This let's me take five monsters from my graveyard and shuffle them back into my deck. Now I get to draw two new cards."

Yugi drew one of the monsters he had shuffled back into his deck he also one of his new spell cards.

"Okay… I can do this… I play the spell card Future Fusion! This let's me send fusion material monsters from my deck to the graveyard, and on my second standby phase after this card's activation, I can summon a fusion monster."

"I'll destroy you before you that happens, not that it will matter, even if you do manage to summon a fusion monster then Slifer will just blast it away."

"We'll see. I switch my Silent Swordsman to defense mode."

(DEF: 1000)

"Running scared eh? Can't say I blame you. Slifer, attack!"

Slifer blew Yugi's swordsman into nothingness.

"Since you can't draw and card and need to keep the one's in your hand for Slifer's attack points that's all you can do."

"It'll be enough, trust me. Thanks to my Breath of Slifer spell card you have barely any monsters that don't require any sacrifices left in your deck, soon I'll be able to attack your life points directly, and Slifer will wipe you out with one attack! It's over Yugi!"

"As the real Atem once told me… It's never over till it's over!"

"It'll be over soon enough. I activate the trap card Light of Intervention! Now whenever either of us plays a monster in defense mode, it will have to be face up. There will be no surprises from you."

"Don't count on it. Here's one of the monster's I brought back to my deck with the Pot of Avarice, I summon Big Shield Gardna in defense mode!"

(ATK: 100 DEF: 2600)

"No shield is big enough to protect you from the wrath of the gods, especially since Slifer's second mouth caused your Big Shield Gardna to lose 2000 defense points!"

Slifer blasted Yugi's monster with a blast from its second mouth.

(DEF: 600)

"It was strong enough to survive." said Yugi "I end my turn."

"I knew you weren't worthy of holding my god cards or my title Yugi, and now I'm going to prove it. I may not be able to draw from my deck for another turn, but I still have the cards in my hand. I play Stop Defense!"

"No! Not that card!" said Joey.

"This forces your Big Shield Gardna into attack mode!"

(ATK: 100)

"Since I have one less card in my hand Slifer loses 1000 attack points, but it's still powerful enough to take a huge toll on your life points!"

(ATK: 5000)

"Slifer, attack!"

Yugi's Big Shield Gardna was destroyed.

(Yugi: 1100)

"Your move Yugi, not that it matters. Thanks to my Breath of Slifer card I've destroyed almost all the low level monsters in your deck. Thanks to your Pot of Avarice you have a few left, but odds are you won't draw them. On my next turn my Egyptian god monster will destroy you!"

Yugi started laughing.

"What are you so happy about? Stop laughing you fool!"

"I should thank you for depleting my life points. Now I can destroy Slifer."

"That's a pretty big claim, but I doubt you can back it up."

"Watch me. It's been two turns since I activate Future Fusion, now I can summon a fusion monster!"

"Well… What is it?"

"When I played Future Fusion I took three of the monsters I brought back with Pot of Avarice. The monsters I used were Queen's Knight, King's Knight, and Jack's Knight. Now I can summon Arcana Knight Joker!"

(ATK: 3800 DEF: 2500)

"Don't forget, since you just summoned a monster, Slifer blasts away 2000 of it's attack points with his second mouth!"

Slifer fired at Yugi's knight.

"I don't think so! I activate Joker's special effect! Whenever he's targeted by a monster, spell, or trap effect I can discard one card from my hand of the same type to negate that effect. So by discarding my Buster Blader, Slifer's second mouth effect is negated!"

Yugi's Knight held up his shield, which took the full force of Slifer's attack.

"It makes no difference! Even at full power your knight has only 3800 attack points, and Slifer has 5000!"

"That's why I needed you to wipe out most of my life points with Slifer. Now I activate the spell card Megamorph! Since your life points are now higher than mine, my Joker's attack points are doubled!"

(ATK: 7600)

"What! This can't be!"

"Arcana Knight Joker, destroy Slifer the Sky Dragon!"

Yugi's knight jumped into the air and with one swing of his mighty sword sliced off Slifer's head.

(Atem: 0)

"No… This is impossible… How could I lose with the Egyptian gods in my deck! Mayday! Mayday! Overload! Overloooooooooooooooo…."

Suddenly Atem was engulfed in a bright white light. When it faded there was a robot lying on the ground where he had stood.

"A robot?" asked Tea.

"Not just any robot." said Michael "A prototype Kaiba Corp holo-robot, designed to mimic the appearance of any duelist and use their deck just as effectively."

"Why would Kaiba Corp build a robot like this?"

"Mr. Pegasus told me Kaiba plans on building a school for duelists. Apparently building the duel disk and Kaiba Land wasn't enough for him. He was going to use robots like these to test them"

"Well what's it doing in the hands of Checkmate's goons?" asked Joey "Is Kaiba Checkmate!"

"I seriously doubt it. He's rich enough, but he's certainly not a gambler, and fighting Yugi through hired goons isn't his style. Checkmate must have someone in Industrial Illusions who made the Breath of Slifer card. He also needed someone in Kaiba Corp to add the card into the database, otherwise the duel disks wouldn't have recognized have recognized it."

Yugi checked the robot's deck; luckily all of his Egyptian gods were there.

"So what do we do with the robot?" asked Tea "Take it back to Kaiba Corp?"

"I don't think that will be necessary. Knowing Kaiba his company probably tracked the robot's location while you Yugi and it were dueling. His people should be here just about… now."

Seto Kaiba was sitting in his office working late as usual when the phone rang.

"What is it Mokuba?"

"Seto, we found the stolen prototype, and you're not going to believe what happened."

"Thrill me."

"It was dueling Yugi, and get this, it was using his very own Egyptian god cards and one card that doesn't exist."

"So… Someone steals my prototype, hacks into my company's database, makes up a card, and then steals Yugi's own Egyptian god cards so my prototype can use them against him in a duel… Something is very wrong here."

Before Kaiba could say another word the lights in his office went out and the phone line went dead. Kaiba expected the backup generators to kick in, but nothing happened.

"The power will come on when I tell it to."

There was someone else in the room with Kaiba. That person lit a candle and Kaiba saw that he was dressed head to toe in body armor that was white, gold, black, and silver.

"Who the hell are you and what do you want?"

"Let's just say I'm a friend. As for what I want Seto Kaiba, there is someone else here I would like you to meet."

"And who would that be?"

"You can come in now dear."

The door to Kaiba's office opened and there was someone standing there. Kaiba couldn't believe his eyes.

**(To be continued)**


	11. The Challenge

She had blue eyes and long white hair. Kaiba had never met this girl before, but for some reason he felt like he had known her his whole life.

"Kisara?"

"He knows my name!"

When she spoke her words were not her own, and though she didn't realize it, she was speaking in another language.

"I am Kisara reincarnated."

Kaiba went over to her and started speaking in the same language that she was, she had never heard it before, but she understood him perfectly.

"I have waited countless centuries to see you again… My princess Kisara."

"You must've realized my Prince, our love is stronger than death."

Then automatically and without giving it any thought whatsoever, Kaiba pulled her close and kissed her on the lips.

"I hate to interrupt the moment, but I'm not giving you this girl for free." said Checkmate.

"Name your price." said Kaiba.

"It's not a question of money. I want you to do something for me."

"What?"

"Something that will be mutually beneficial for both of us I assure you… I want you to duel Yugi Moto and win… for once. If you succeed you can keep your new girlfriend Seto Kaiba, but if you fail me… well… I'll leave that your imagination."

"Wait a minute." said Kisara "I thought…"

Kaiba stopped her.

"Let me handle this." he whispered.

Checkmate's shadow danced violently in the against the wall as the candlelight flickered.

"I know who you are." said Kaiba "You're that sick individual they talk about on the news, the one who gambles with people's lives. You're Checkmate… And I'm willing to bet you're the one who stole my prototype and made it duel Yugi with his own god cards and that one card that you created by hacking into my company's database"

"Guilty as charged… Well I didn't do any of that personally, but it was all my money."

"I didn't know your methods included this." said Kaiba looking at Kisara.

"Seto I…"

"Don't get me wrong Kaiba; the girl doesn't know anything. She wanted to meet you, and I told her I could help, and I did so because I want you to defeat Yugi Moto, and I'm giving you the girl, because now I know you'll try."

"What do you hope to gain from this?"

"My friends and I would like to see if the so called King of Games can fall and fall hard. I would have challenged him myself, but I was told that the only duelist in world that can defeat him is you."

"You're told correct."

"So you'll do it?"

"I will… but in the meantime I keep the girl, as a good faith payment."

"Very well, have it your way. And don't worry, if all goes well then when the big piñata breaks, you'll get it all. The title of the worlds number one ranked duelist, the publicity will make your company all the more successful, and you'll have the woman of your dreams. Fail… and I'll be back."

Checkmate blew out his candle and all went black. After about three minutes the lights came back on and Kaiba and Kisara were alone in his office, then the phone started ringing.

"Seto! Seto! What the heck happened? Why didn't the backup generators work?"

"Never mind that Mokuba, get up here, there's something I need to talk to you about."

In the morning Yugi and friends were drawn to the front page of the newspaper.

Checkmate Strikes Again!

"Are they talking about us?" asked Joey.

"No. Some kid was caught with a dead body and suitcase full of bam bam in his car. Later there was chessboard and a note that read "Cops beat desperate kid" found in his holding cell."

"That's just sick." said Tea.

"We're dealing with a very sick person." said Michael "And on that topic, the delivery has arrived."

"What delivery?" asked Yugi.

"Checkmate's goons managed to steal your Egyptian god cards Yugi. I've taken the liberty of buying you a safe to try and prevent that from happening again."

Michael needed Joey's help moving the safe up to Yugi's room.

"Okay… This is safe has no ordinary lock. It uses a handprint identification feature, just like in the movies, but that's not all it does. Check this out."

Michael pressed a couple buttons that were on the keypad. They hadn't set the lock yet, so Michael was showing them how it worked. Suddenly a life size holographic image of the Dark Magician Girl appeared and pointed her staff at them.

"Stick em up! What's the password?"

"What is that?" asked Mai.

"That's the second lock. It needs a password in addition to Yugi's handprint. Once we get this thing set it will only take Yugi's handprint and his voice for the password. Okay, let's get to work."

When Yugi and Michael were done setting the locks they placed the god cards inside.

"Well that takes care of that."

"Uh… guys…"

"What now?"

"We got another one of Checkmate's messages."

Yugi and the others opened the letter that had a chess king stamp on it and no return address.

**If you wish to end this game of chess, here's the thing, defeat Seto Kaiba, and that will flush out the king.**

"Kaiba? How on God's green earth did Checkmate manage to get to Kaiba?" asked Joey.

"Maybe they kidnapped Mokuba."

"I don't think so." said Michael "If the younger brother of a rich tyrant like Kaiba was kidnapped I think it would be all over the news."

Suddenly the door bell rang.

"Now who could that be?"

Yugi and the others went downstairs.

"Speak of the devil, it's Mokuba!"

"What brings you to this side of town?"

"I'm not really here to make small talk. Yugi, my brother challenges you to duel this Friday at the Duel Dome. He told me not to take no for an answer."

"Before I answer Mokuba, would you care to tell me why he's suddenly so interested in dueling me… you know… outside the obvious?"

"What do you mean?"

"Have you guys been blackmailed recently?" asked Joey.

"What?"

"Never mind. Tell your brother I'll be there." said Yugi.

Later Michael and Joey went out to try and find out what Checkmate could possibly have done to get Kaiba to decide to duel Yugi. Yugi himself stayed and was already making preparations for his deck.

"So Kaiba's the last one before Checkmate."

"Don't worry Yugi, you've beaten Kaiba before, and I just know you can do it again." said Tea.

Yugi may have beaten Kaiba before, but the duels had always been too close for comfort. Ever since Yugi defeated Kaiba for the first time he had given him no peace, over the years Kaiba had done everything in his power to try and regain his title as the world's number one ranked duelist, but no matter their differences over the years, a duel with Kaiba didn't mean the end of the world. His motives were egotistical, but Kaiba never put people's lives in danger. If Yugi ever lost to him the only thing that he would lose would be his title.

"Yugi… I'm talking to you."

"I'm listening Tea."

"What's on your mind?"

"I really want this madness to be over. If I can make it through this duel with Kaiba I know I'll be ready for Checkmate, and when this is over… I was thinking maybe we could take some time off?"

"By we… you mean us?"

Yugi blushed.

"Uh… yes."

"Sure, I'd be happy to."

Kaiba was in his lab gathering information on all Yugi's recent duels from the Duel Ring Server's database and running simulations and looking for any new strategies that might help. He had been awake for almost sixty hours. There could be no mistakes this time.

"Seto… Seto…"

"What is it Mokuba?"

"Can we talk?"

Kaiba didn't need to bother to ask what Mokuba wanted to talk about. One minute they're talking about a stolen prototype on the phone, then the power goes out, and when it comes back on, he suddenly has a girlfriend. Kaiba had found it hard to explain this to his little brother. He had told Mokuba that when he first saw her, he felt as though he had made it home, or rather a piece of home had found it's way to him. He never wanted to believe in any of this past life and destiny stuff that Yugi and his friends kept blabbering about, but recently he had forced himself to try and keep an open mind.

"You have ten minutes."

"Look Seto, I know this is none of my business… and I know you think I'm against you seeing someone you only just met a few days ago… Anyway I'm not… against it."

Kaiba didn't say a word.

"Seto, given the circumstances I expected to find you in here obsessing over your upcoming duel with Yugi, which is pretty much what you're doing, but compared to your usual attitude you're being box of chocolates. There's something different about you… Good different. I actually see you smile more often. If she makes you happy that's great."

As a matter of fact, Seto Kaiba was smiling right now.

"You're right."

"I am?"

"It is none of your business."

"Good God, he told a joke." thought Mokuba.

**(To be continued)**


	12. The Big Night

In order to keep his guests from getting bored until the day of the duel, he had to organize several other means of entertainment. Today he was facing off against a supercomputer in his favorite game.

"Bishop to B6, check."

As Checkmate predicted, the computer sent its queen to take his bishop. It had walked right into a trap.

"Queen to E4, checkmate!"

"Uh… Checkmate always wins."

"That's why I bet on him."

"I'll bet he cheated."

"Ladies and gentlemen, your patience is about to be rewarded. Today we will witness a duel between Yugi Moto and his greatest rival, Seto Kaiba, who's had it in for him since the day he defeated him for the first time. So far Seto Kaiba hasn't been able to win a duel fair and square, but never before have the stakes been so high? Will Seto Kaiba's new motivation help him finally dethrone his long time rival, or will Yugi Moto earn the right to face me? I'd put the odds at… fifty to fifty… ladies and gentlemen… place your bets."

Seto Kaiba was going over one last revision of the cards in his inventory. He had gone over his plan over a hundred times at this point. But his deck was still missing something, an ace in the hole.

"Seto…"

Kaiba was amazed at how radiant Kisara looked in a simple white dress. If all went well tonight he was hoping he would soon see here in a different kind of white dress.

"Yes?"

"I have something for you."

Kisara handed him a card. When Kaiba looked at it he couldn't believe his eyes.

"This card is one of kind… Where did you get it?"

"I thought you already knew… My mother was something of duelist herself. She won it in contest… It's the only thing I have left of her."

Even though he knew it was wrong to run a background check on someone who claimed to love you, Kaiba knew he was playing Checkmate's game and didn't ;like take any chances. He was certain Mokuba had done the same thing, otherwise he wouldn't be so quick to approve of him seeing someone he was suddenly introduced to. Kisara's mother had been something of duelist, specializing in using dragon cards of all things. But what could have been a promising career was tragically cut short when her mother died giving birth to her. She had no other relatives, so unlike Kaiba and Mokuba who came to live in an orphanage and were later adopted, she was raised in one. If Checkmate hadn't brought her into Kaiba's life then hers would no doubt have been one of mediocrity, but if Kaiba didn't win tonight and if Checkmate had his way she might not have a life at all, but Kaiba wasn't about to let that happen.

"If it's all you have left of your mother… Why are you giving it to me?"

"Because you've given me so much… And I wanted to give you something in return."

Without warning she moved in and kissed him on the lips.

"Good luck tonight."

"I don't rely on luck to win a duel… but thanks anyway."

Kaiba added the card she had given him to his deck and turned to leave.

"Stay here with Mokuba until I get back. Don't let anyone else in… I love you."

Without saying another word he went out the door. Kaiba had a small army of men protecting the place, he had done a background check on them all.

"This door doesn't open, they don't come out, and no one goes in except for me. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir!"

"Good, because if I come back here and find that anything has happened to either of them, I'll take more than just your jobs."

"Leave it to Kaiba to take a single duel and blow it way out of proportion." said Joey.

The Duel Dome was packed with people tonight. Yugi had been driven to the duelist entrance by one of Kaiba's limos, but his friends were forced to buy tickets.

"It isn't just a big crowd." said Michael "I heard Kaiba is live broadcasting this duel worldwide. If he finally defeats Yugi he wants the whole world to see it."

"And we'll all laugh when that doesn't happen." said Mai.

"Who do you think is going to win, Michael?" asked Serenity.

"It's hard to say. In a duel between two rivals as big as Yugi and Kaiba only one thing can be guaranteed… that this is going to be one heck of a show."

"Yugi's beaten Kaiba before, and he'll do it again!" said Tea.

"This is it." thought Yugi as he ascended the elevator that was taking him to the arena "If I can defeat Kaiba by myself, I'll be ready to face Checkmate… Atem… I'll make you proud."

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! WELCOME TO THE KAIBA CORP DUEL DOME FOR WHAT PROMISES TO BE A DUEL TO REMEMBER! IN THIS CORNER, THE INTERNATIONAL DUEL MONSTERS CHAMPION, THE MASTER OF THE EGYPTIAN GOD MONSTERS, THE KING OF GAMES HIMSELF! YUGI MOTO!"

As Yugi entered the arena a lot of the people in the stadium jumped up and cheered.

"LONG LIVE KING YUGI! LONG LIVE THE KING!"

After about forty seconds the cheering was silenced by sound of mighty roar. Yugi looked up to see what it was. There was a giant hologram of the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon flying overhead.

"BLUE-EYES ULTIMATE DRAGON HAS TAKEN TO THE SKIES! THAT CAN ONLY MEAN ONE THING!"

Kaiba came parachuting out of the sky and landed in the arena on the side opposite Yugi.

"HERE HE IS! YUGI'S GREATEST RIVAL! CEO OF KAIBA CORP AND MASTER OF THE BLUE-EYES! THE ONE, THE ONLY, SETO KAIBA!"

The people who hadn't been cheering moments ago got up and started.

"KAIBA! KAIBA! KAIBA!"

"He knows how to make an entrance, got to give him that." said Michael.

Meanwhile at Duke's place he and Tristan were still indisposed and were watching the show unfold on TV.

"That dragon of his…" said Tristan "Does he ever realize how… dumb it is?"

"I know… hic." replied Duke "White Dragon… that sounds like a drink… Ah yes bartender, I'll have two Black Russians and a White Dragon."

Yugi could tell there was something different about Kaiba, but he couldn't tell what. As he approached he could see the fire in his eyes.

"Welcome, glad you came to duel Yugi, because this time things are going to be different."

"I've heard that one before. Now what did Checkmate promise you that would become one of his pawns?"

"That's none of your business, and I don't give a damn about Checkmate or his twisted little game, I'm here to duel for my own reasons, and for my reasons alone I will defeat you!"

All of Checkmate's guests had placed their bets. Since Checkmate had stated that the odds between Yugi and Kaiba were even half the room was betting on Yugi and the other half for Kaiba.

"Yugi Moto is determined to protect his friends; Seto Kaiba is determined to protect the woman he loves. These two duelists have been archrivals for years and yet Yugi has always come out on top… with the help of his friend the Pharaoh, but this time little Yugi is all alone, and for Kaiba the stakes have never been higher. What a splendid show this should make."

"Who do you think is going to win?"

"My dear, I don't really care who wins or loses." replied Checkmate "I just don't want to see a knockout in the first round."

**(To be continued)**

**Coming up next…**

**Yugi vs. Kaiba**

**No commercials, no mercy!**

**And an ending you'll never see coming.**


	13. Clash of the Titans!

"Let's get on with it Yugi. I have more important things to do than just stand around staring at you all day. But tell me… are you scared without your friend the Pharaoh?"

"You wish."

"Very well then. Draw your cards, and may the best duelist win."

"Let's duel!"

"I'll start!"

Kaiba looked at the cards in his hand.

"Stick to the plan." he told himself "Don't be an artist. Don't drag this duel out and give him a chance to come back. Take him down hard and fast. Too much is at stake here."

Yugi could tell there was something different about Kaiba, but he couldn't tell what.

"I haven't seen him this serious since I fought him at Duelist Kingdom, back when he was fighting for Mokuba."

"I'll place two cards face down, and summon a monster in defense mode. That ends my turn."

"Only the first turn and Kaiba's already on the defensive? That's not like him." said Michael.

"So what's he up to?" asked Serenity.

"Maybe he's trying to draw Yugi into an attack?" suggested Joey.

"It's my turn! I'll place one card face down and summon Beta the Magnet Warrior in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1700 DEF: 1600)

"Beta, attack his face down monster!"

Kaiba's monster was destroyed, but he didn't seem to care.

"A sacrifice that doesn't even faze me. Since you destroyed my Familiar Knight I can special summon a level 4 monster from my hand, and I choose my X-Head Cannon!"

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1500)

"Yes, but have you forgotten that thanks to your knight's effect I also get to summon a monster? And I choose the Skilled Dark Magician!"

(ATK: 1900 DEF: 1700)

"Skilled Dark Magician, attack and destroy his X-Head Cannon!"

"Nice try Yugi, but I knew you'd make that move, which is why my face down card is Negate Attack!"

The Skilled Dark Magician's attack was stopped.

"Now it's my turn, and I summon Y-Dragon Head!"

(ATK: 1500 DEF: 1600)

"Next I'll activate the spell card Double Summon, this let's me normal summon once more this turn."

"Oh boy…"

"I summon Z-Metal Tank!"

(ATK: 1500 DEF: 1300)

"And since all three of these monsters are on the field, I can remove them from play to summon XYZ-Dragon Cannon!"

(ATK: 2800 DEF: 2600)

"Now by discarding one card from my hand, I can destroy one card on the field. Dragon Cannon, destroy Beta the Magnet Warrior!"

Beta was blasted into nothingness.

"And that was just his special effect; now get ready for his attack! Dragon Cannon, attack his Skilled Dark Magician!"

"I don't think so Kaiba, I activate Magic Cylinder! This negates your attack and redirects it at your life points!"

"Your pathetic magic tricks won't save you here, I activate Ring of Defense, this protects my life points from the effect of one trap card!"

"Doesn't Kaiba usually save that card to use it in a combo with his Ring of Destruction?"

"I don't think he had much of a choice." said Mai "If that had connected he would have lost half his life points."

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, CAN YOU BELIEVE THE SKILL OF THESE TWO DUELISTS? AS SOON AS ONE COUNTERS, THE OTHER FINDS A WAY TO COUNTER THAT! BUT HOW LONG CAN THEY KEEP THIS UP? HOW LONG!"

"I hope you know Kaiba, since you used two spell cards on your last turn, my Skilled Dark Magician gains two spell counters."

"Your point?"

"It's my turn, and I activate my Pot of Greed, now not only do I get to draw two cards, but my Skilled Dark Magician gets a third spell counter, now I can sacrifice him to special summon my Dark Magician!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 21000)

"So now you have a tougher magician that's still weaker than my Dragon Cannon, big deal."

"Oh it's a very big deal. Now that the Dark Magician is in play I can use this spell card, Thousand Knives!"

"No!"

"Yes, now I can destroy one monster on the field, and I can't think of anything more perfect than your Dragon Cannon."

Kaiba's Dragon Cannon was destroyed by the daggers conjured by Yugi's magician.

"Now your life points are wide open. Dark Magician, attack!"

The Dark Magician blasted Kaiba with his Dark Magic Attack.

(Kaiba: 1500)

"JUST LIKE THAT YUGI MOTO TAKES THE LEAD! LOOKS LIKE HIS WINNING STREAK AGAINST KAIBA WILL CONTINUE!"

"Err… No… I won't lose this time… But that last turn used up all the cards in my hand. If I draw the wrong card right now it's all over."

Kaiba drew his card.

"I play Pot of Greed, now I get to draw two new cards… Next I'll place one card face down and summon a monster in defense mode."

"Kaiba doesn't have the necessary cards to use his best traps." said Michael "All Yugi has to do is draw a monster with enough attack points and he wins."

Yugi drew his card, but it wasn't a monster, it looked like the duel would continue for another turn.

"Dark Magician, attack his face down monster!"

Kaiba's monster was destroyed.

"Thanks for that! When Giant Germ is sent to the graveyard, not only do I get to special summon two more Giant Germs from my deck, but you take 500 points of damage!"

(2x ATK: 1000 DEF: 100)

(Yugi: 3500)

"LOOKS LIKE SETO KAIBA FINALLY DREW BLOOD! BUT HE"S STILL GOT A LONG WAY TO GO IF HE WANTS TO WIN THIS DUEL!"

"I don't think Kaiba will be making a comeback anytime soon." said Joey "He has no cards in his hand, so unless he draw an Emergency Card Stash he's in big trouble."

Kaiba drew his card.

"I'll sacrifice both my Giant Germs to summon a monster in defense mode!"

"Defense mode? I thought Kaiba was going to summon his Blue-Eyes White Dragon." said Serenity.

"Maybe he didn't draw it."

"It's my turn! First I'll place a card face down, and next I'll summon Gamma the Magnet Warrior in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1500 DEF: 1800)

"Dark Magician, attack his face down monster!"

Kaiba's monster revealed itself.

"Oh great."

"Sorry Yugi, but Hyozanryu is strong enough to withstand your magician's attack!"

(ATK: 2100 DEF: 2800)

(Yugi: 3200)

"I don't want to sound pessimistic, but this is not going well."

Mokuba and Kisara were still where Kaiba had left them and were watching the duel unfold on TV.

"Seto is doing damage to Yugi's life points, but it just isn't enough. And the only thing standing between Yugi and the rest of his life points is that dragon." said Mokuba.

"Well it's his turn, maybe he'll draw a game changer."

"I certainly hope so, he has no cards in his hand at the moment, and if he doesn't do something fast he's going to lose."

"Keep fighting Seto… Don't give up." thought Kisara.

"This can't go on." thought Kaiba "Yugi still has the advantage and Hyozanryu won't protect me forever. I need to draw something that can turn this duel around."

Kaiba moved to draw his card.

"Please… Too much is at stake here."

After Kaiba drew his card Yugi saw him crack a smile.

"Just what the doctor ordered. I play Emergency Card Stash! Since there are no cards in my hand I can now draw six cards from my deck!"

Kaiba drew his six cards, at first it didn't look like there was much he could do, but then he remembered his face down card.

"Perfect… Behold, Saggi the Dark Clown!"

(ATK: 600 DEF: 1500)

"Saggi the Dark Clown? Don't tell me he still has that monster in his deck." said Joey.

"What's that going to do against Yugi's monsters?" asked Tea "His Dark Magician is over four times stronger."

"Wait a minute… Kaiba still has that face down card he played a few turns ago." said Michael "Oh no!"

"I activate my face down trap card, The Crush Card Virus!"

"I don't think so Kaiba, I counter with Seven Tools of the Bandit!"

"No!"

"It may cost me 1000 life points, but its well worth the price."

(Yugi: 2200)

"Err… I'll place one card face down and end my turn."

"Now I think it's time I put an end to out little game Kaiba. Dark Magician, attack Saggi the Dark Clown!"

"Sorry Yugi, but my face down card is Attack Guidance Armor! This redirects your attack to your own Magnet Warrior!"

Gamma was destroyed by the Dark Magician's attack.

(Yugi: 1200)

"… Very well, I'll place one card face down and end my turn."

"CAN YOU BELIEVE IT FOLKS? JUST LIKE THAT KAIBA TAKES THE LEAD! EVEN IF IT IS ONLY BY 300 LIFE POINTS! I SMELL A COMEBACK!"

"I can't let this duel drag on any longer." thought Kaiba "I'm only ahead by 300 life points, and knowing Yugi he could turn the tide soon enough. I must take him out now!"

Kaiba drew his card.

"Perfect… I remove the Different Dimension Dragon and Familiar Knight in my graveyard from play, so I can special summon Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End!"

(ATK: 3000 DEF: 2500)

"Now for the price of 1000 life points I can destroy every card on the field and in our hands, and the best part Yugi is that you take 300 points of damage for every card that's destroyed!"

(Kaiba: 500)

"Sorry Kaiba, but I'm activating my face down trap card, Divine Wrath!"

"You've got to be kidding me!"

"I'm afraid not. Now by discarding one card from my hand, I can negate the activation of one monster's effect and destroy it!"

Kaiba's dragon was struck down by lightening.

"Blast it, all for nothing… Even without his little friend Yugi is a force to be reckoned with… He only has twelve hundred life points left, but it might as well be twelve thousand. If there weren't so much on the line I'd be enjoying the challenge…"

"Kaiba just doesn't give up." thought Yugi "That's fine, I won't either."

"I'll end my turn by switching Saggi the Dark Clown to defense mode!"

(DEF: 1500)

This was the first time Tea had seen Yugi duel Kaiba by himself, and he was doing very well.

"That's my Yugi."

"I'll summon a monster in defense mode, and attack Saggi with the Dark Magician!"

Saggi was blown away.

"It's my turn! And I play Card of Demise! This let's me draw five cards from my deck, but in five turns I must discard my entire hand, but I don't need to worry about that Yugi, because you won't last that long. Next I'll place two cards face down on the field, and activate Emergency Provisions! By giving up the two cards I just played, I gain 2000 life points!"

(Kaiba: 2500)

"LOOKS LIKE SETO KAIBA HAS TURNED THE TABLES YET AGAIN!"

"Next I play Dark Core! By discarding one card from my hand I can remove one monster from the game! And I can't think of anyone better than your Dark Magician!"

Yugi's Dark Magician vanished into the abyss.

"Next I'll switch Hyozanryu to attack mode!"

(ATK: 2100)

"Hyozanryu, attack his face down monster!"

Hyozanryu attacked, but nothing happened.

"WHAT?"

"Sorry Kaiba, but my Obnoxious Celtic Guard can't be destroyed in battle by monsters with 1900 attack points or more."

"I don't believe it… It's as if Yugi knows exactly what cards I'll use, but I know him better than that… He's many things, but a cheater isn't one of them. As much as I hate to admit it, he's always been my equal… but I'll never let him be my superior!"

"It's my turn Kaiba, and I activate the spell card Emblem of Dragon Destroyer, this let's me bring Buster Blader from my deck to my hand. Next I'll discard one card from my hand so I can special summon the Tricky!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1200)

"Now I'll sacrifice my Obnoxious Celtic Guard and my Tricky to summon my Buster Blader!"

(ATK: 2600 DEF: 2300)

"He just had to draw that as soon as I switched Hyozanryu to attack mode."

"Since you have one monster on the field, and one in your graveyard, my Buster Blader gains 1000 attack points!"

(ATK: 3600)

"Buster Blader, attack his Hyozanryu!"

Kaiba's dragon was cut in half.

(Kaiba: 1000)

"This is great!" said Joey "Now even if Kaiba summons those blasted dragons of his, Yugi's warrior will just get stronger!"

"Go Yugi go!" said Tea.

"Alright… that's it…" said Kaiba "This duel ends right here… right now!"

Kaiba drew his card.

"Yugi… I can't let you win this duel… This time I will crush you… and I have just the card to do that. I play Ancient Rules! This let's me special summon a level five or higher normal monster from my hand!"

"Oh boy… here it comes!" said Michael.

"Behold the noblest monster in my deck, the creature that is the embodiment of my soul and my fighting spirit, the monster the represents everything that I am! I summon the Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"

Kaiba's dragon appeared and gave a mighty roar.

(ATK: 3000 DEF: 2500)

"Kisara, is something wrong?"

"What? No Mokuba I'm fine."

At first Mokuba didn't like the fact that Seto suddenly had a girlfriend, but it didn't take long for him to see some positive changes in his big brother. But his concern did cause him to run a background check on the girl behind Seto's back. Finally his mind was put at ease and he realized Kisara wasn't the kind of person who would go after his brother just because he was rich, she had been a disadvantaged orphan just the same as they had been, only she never escaped from that life, and yet for some reason she dreamed of being with Seto, she had even shown Mokuba the pictures she collected of him. It may have only been a week, but she was starting to seem like the big sister he never had. Things were moving fast for Kisara too, but she wasn't complaining.

"Seto…"

Her eyes were fixed on the screen. Kaiba had just summoned his Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

"Seto… I know we're miles apart at the moment… but for some reason I feel so close to you."

"If you think I'm scared of your dragon Kaiba, think again."

"I know, for every dragon on my field or in my graveyard your Buster Blader gains 500 attack points."

(ATK: 4100)

"But that doesn't scare me. I activate the spell card Magical Stone Excavation! By discarding two cards from my hand, I can bring back one spell card that I've used. And I think I'll discard these two."

"What?"

The two cards Kaiba was discarding were his two other Blue-Eyes.

"Since you're sending two more dragons to the graveyard, my Buster Blader gains 1000 more attack points."

(ATK: 5100)

"I'm still not impressed." replied Kaiba "Now I'll play the spell card I brought back, Emergency Card Stash, and as you know since there are no cards in my hand I get to draw six cards from my deck. And it looks like I drew just the card I need. I play Burst Stream of Destruction! Since I have a Blue-Eyes on the field, I can use this spell card to destroy every monster you have out!"

Kaiba's Blue-Eyes fired a blast that destroyed Yugi's Buster Blader.

"Oh no! If Kaiba attacks, Yugi will lose!"

"Read the fine print Tea." said Mai "Since Kaiba used Burst Stream of Destruction his Blue-Eyes can't attack this turn."

"Sure using Burst Stream of Destruction prevents my Blue-Eyes from attacking, but I found a way around that. I activate the spell card Dragon's Mirror! By removing necessary monsters on my side of the field or in my graveyard, I can summon a dragon type fusion monster!"

"Oh boy, here it comes." said Michael.

"I remove the Blue-Eyes on my field and the two in my graveyard so I can bring forth my ultimate monster! The Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

The Ultimate Dragon descended from the sky, all of Kaiba's fans reacted with awe.

(ATK: 4500 DEF: 3800)

"HERE IT IS LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! THE MONSTER THAT RIVALS THE EGYPTIAN GODS THEMSELVES!"

Kaiba looked at his hand. He was holding the card that Kisara had given him. He had given her so much, and besides her love it was all she could give him in return.

"Alright Kisara… Time to see how bright we shine together… Prepare yourself Yugi, I activate the equip spell, Bond of the Star Crossed Lovers!"

"Not that! Hey wait… I've never heard of that card." said Joey.

"Me neither." said Mai.

"Oh my gosh, it does exist!" exclaimed Michael.

"What? What is it?" asked Serenity.

"As I'm sure you all know, there are some cards that were never released to the public because they were too powerful; Mr. Pegasus' Toon World, Yugi's Egyptian god cards, and of course Bond of the Star Crossed Lovers, but I have no idea where Kaiba could've gotten that card."

"Bond of the Star Crossed Lovers doubles my Ultimate Dragon's attack points, in addition it can no longer be destroyed by monster, spell, or trap effects!"

(ATK: 9000)

"I'd hate to be the bearer of even more bad news, but since I played Burst Stream of Destruction you have no monsters on the field, and by the looks of things, no spells or traps either, leaving your life points wide open!"

"No! Yugi!"

"I wish I could savor this moment Yugi Moto, but I have some business to attend to. Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, attack Yugi's life points directly! NEUTRON BLAST!"

The Ultimate Dragon fired huge blast that shook the whole arena; all was quiet as the smoke started to clear.

"WHAT!"

(Yugi: 1200)

"Impossible! You had no monsters to protect your life points, you didn't have any spell or traps on the field either!"

"Well, then it's a very good thing I had this in my hand."

Yugi took a card out of his graveyard and showed it to Kaiba.

"Err… You and your blasted Kuriboh… But it doesn't really matter… My Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon has twice as many attack points, and it can't be destroyed by monster, spell, or trap effects either. So unless you can summon a monster that has over nine thousand attack points this duel is all but over. I'll place one card face down on the field and end my turn."

"This is it…" said Checkmate "Someone is about to lose this duel. But who will it be? Maybe I should flip a coin."

Everyone in the stadium was chanting Yugi's name, the other half was chanting Kaiba's.

"Heart of the cards… guide me."

Yugi drew his card.

"Alright Kaiba, looks like I'll be bringing down your Ultimate Dragon yet again."

"You've nothing strong enough!"

"Here's what I've got. I activate Double Spell! By discarding my Tricky Spell 4 from my hand, I can use one spell card from my graveyard, and I can think of anything better than your Emergency Card Stash, now I get to draw six new cards!"

Yugi drew his six cards.

"I special summon Watapon!"

(ATK: 200 DEF: 300)

"Now I'll sacrifice Watapon to summon my Dark Magician Girl!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1700)

A lot of the Yugi's male fans started cheering when the Dark Magician Girl appeared.

"That's your big plan Yugi? Sorry to disappoint you but your little girlfriend doesn't stand a chance against my Ultimate Dragon."

"Who said anything about my Dark Magician Girl slaying your dragon?"

"What do you mean?"

"I remove the Watapon and Kuriboh in my graveyard from play so I can special summon Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning!"

(ATK: 3000 DEF: 2500)

"So now you have another monster, it's still not strong enough to destroy my Ultimate Dragon."

"I'm not attacking with my soldier, I'm activating his special effect!"

"Haven't you been listening? Thanks to Bond of the Star Crossed Lovers, my dragon can't be destroyed by card effects."

"I'm not destroying it, I'm removing it from play."

"WHAT!"

Yugi's Black Luster Soldier took his sword, which started glowing. He swung it with all its might and fired a blast at Kaiba's Ultimate Dragon, which vanished into thin air.

"Sure my Black Luster Soldier can't attack on the turn he uses this effect, but it doesn't my Dark Magician Girl can't."

"No… I can't lose… I won't lose… There's too much at stake here! KISARA!"

"Dark Magician Girl, attack Kaiba directly!"

"NO! I WON'T LOSE TOU YOU AGAIN! NEVER AGAIN!"

"What is his problem?" asked Joey.

"I ACTIVATE THE TRAP CARD RING OF DESTRUCTION!"

"Uh-oh!"

"NO ONE AND NOTHING WILL COME BETWEEN ME AND KISARA! RING OF DESTRUCTION, ATTACH YOURSELF TO YUGI"S BLACK LUSTER SOLDIER – ENVOY OF THE BEGINNING!"

Yugi and his friend could only watch in horror as the Ring of Destruction bound itself around the neck of Yugi's soldier, who struggled fruitlessly against it, then the ring exploded and Yugi's monster was lost in blinding flash of light.

The whole stadium was quiet as the smoke started to clear. When it did no one could believe their eyes.

(Yugi: 0)

(Kaiba: 0)

"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" exclaimed the announcer "THEY'RE DOWN! THEY'RE BOTH DOWN!"

Slowly both Yugi and Kaiba got to their feet.

"What happens now?" asked Serenity.

"Since Kaiba organized this duel, I guess that's up to him."

Yugi walked over to where Kaiba was.

"It's your call Kaiba, shall we settle for a draw, or will we go to sudden death?"

For a minute Kaiba just stood there considering the situation.

"I win duels with skill, but sudden death is all about luck, and I'm no gambler." he thought "Besides, Checkmate only told me what would happen if I lost, he never said what would happen if we got the lucky stiff."

Then something happened that no one had ever expected to see. Yugi and Kaiba were shaking hands.

"We may have tied today Yugi Moto, but that just means I'm that much closer to defeating you. Until we meet again, don't you dare lose to any other duelist."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

As the two duelists walked away from each other the whole world saw Seto Kaiba smiling.

"I'll get you next time Yugi… next time."

The whole Duel Dome was erupting in applause, but at Checkmate's lair just the opposite was about to happen. Everyone was wearing masks, so no one knew Checkmate was the only one smiling.

"Well… I guess it's a draw." he said.

"TIE GAME!"

"WHAT THE HELL!"

"GET BACK HERE AND KILL EACH OTHER!"

"RIPOFF!"

"WE PAID FOR BLOOD!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, calm down."

All of Checkmate's guests continued to shout and argue amongst themselves.

"Ladies and gentlemen!"

The shouting died down a little, but not much.

"Okay, I tried being nice, now we're gonna do it my way."

Checkmate gestured for one of his pawns to bring him a machine gun; he took it and fired into the air.

"SHUT UP!"

Everyone immediately fell silent.

"That's better. Now as I was saying my dear friends, there will be bloodshed soon enough, don't you worry. I will see to that personally."

When Kaiba got into his limo he found a note in the seat beside him. It had a white chess king on it.

**Congratulations Seto Kaiba, you actually dueled Yugi Moto and didn't lose. For that I'll let you keep your little girlfriend, and to be honest I didn't really care in the first place. No skin off my %%.**

**Checkmate**

Nevertheless, Kaiba rushed back to the place where he had left Kisara and Mokuba. He wasn't a man who had gotten everything he had by taking chances, and he wasn't going to start tonight.

"Sir, there hasn't been any activity since you left."

"Good, get ready to get into the cars and follow me."

Kaiba opened the door.

"Seto! You were awesome!"

Kaiba almost didn't hear Mokuba, because he was so absorbed in the hug Kisara was giving him.

"What do we do now?"

"I'll let you decide." he said.

"Excuse me."

"I think we all deserve a vacation. Let's get out of Domino City and go some place where we can be alone, just the three of us."

"Sounds like a plan to me." said Mokuba.

"Where would you like to go Kisara? The sky's the limit."

"… Somewhere tropical… someplace where we can see the stars."

"Stars?" asked Mokuba.

"I've never seen the night sky when it's not drowned out by city lights… I bet it's beautiful."

"I'm sure we can arrange that."

Yugi and the others managed to fight their way through the crowds and make it back to the game shop.

"Look at it this way, you may not have won that duel, but you didn't lose either." said Mai.

"Plus you held your own against Kaiba!" said Joey "And you did it without… uh… any help."

"He would be proud of you Yugi." said Tea.

"Thanks Tea."

"Guys! Look!"

Michael was pointing at a DVD that was sitting on the table. The only thing on the cover was a white chess king. They raced to the other room and put it in the DVD player. On the screen there was a nothing but a man sitting in a chair with it's back to them, and he was playing with a chess board that only had the two kings on it.

"Congratulations Yugi Moto. You have managed to take all my pawns. I confess I have nothing left to use. But that doesn't mean the game is over yet, this is just where the game gets interesting… No more clowning around… It's time we met face to face… I'll be seeing you soon little Yugi… very soon."

**(To be continued)**


	14. At last Checkmate!

Mokuba and Kisara were sound asleep. Regardless of whatever Checkmate had said Kaiba made sure they all got it to his jet safely. Kaiba had already done a background check on everyone involved tonight. Their records had been spotless and they were all people of integrity, there was no reason Checkmate could bribe and or blackmail them into doing his bidding, and even if the pilot did decide to try something, Kaiba could just knock him out and fly the darn thing himself. One would think he could enjoy his flight to a much deserved vacation with his little brother and his new lady friend, but there was something that was still bugging him, that's why he was up making a phone call.

"Hello, KC House of Pizza, how may I take your order?"

"How about I'll have your job with a side order of breadsticks?" replied Kaiba sarcastically.

"Oh crap…" he said under his breath "Mr. Kaiba! Uh… Sorry sir, it's just been a long night."

"I'll bet, and it's only going to longer if you don't shut up and get back to work."

"Understood, what do you need sir?"

"Have you checked every single card in the database?"

"Yes sir, there are no new cards in the database that aren't currently scheduled to be released."

Only a few days ago Checkmate's goons made up a card that was used in duel against Yugi. But every legitimate Duel Monster card in existence was on Kaiba Corp's dueling database. If it wasn't a real card then a duel disk wouldn't recognize it, so Checkmate had to have someone in Kaiba's company to add cards to the database without being noticed, whoever it was Checkmate was getting his money's worth.

"Have you found out who is responsible yet?"

"No sir. I can't find anyone with access to the database that would be prone to blackmail."

"Then it's a bribe, and it could be anyone. I'll find out who it is. And as for you…"

"Yes sir?"

Kaiba was going to say something, but then he noticed how lovely Kisara looked while she was sleeping, and he decided to say something else.

"No more prank calls, is that understood?"

"Yes sir."

"Good."

"I'll be seeing you soon little Yugi… very soon."

That last part of the message had been bugging Yugi all night. After his friends had gone home Yugi just sat there in his room trying to think of what kinds of cards Checkmate might use, but then he realized Checkmate could just make up cards and have someone make them real, so he could be up against anything. This kept him awake trying to find better strategies for his deck hour after hour, until at last Yugi fell asleep, and began to dream.

"What the… Where am I?"

Yugi was standing on the black king's square on a giant chess board. He was surrounded by several other black pieces, two of the pawns looked Duke and Tristan, the knight's looked like Serenity and Mai, the bishops looked like Joey and Michael, and the queen standing next to him looked just like Tea.

"What's going on here?"

Suddenly some white pieces started to advance on Yugi's side of the board and attacked his own pieces. The queen that looked like Tea did her best to defend him, but she was soon taken by the white queen.

"NO! TEA!"

"Worry about yourself."

Yugi was now all alone on the board surrounded by enemy pieces. Then he saw a huge figure looming overhead.

"Checkmate…"

The enemy queen took her staff, and knocked Yugi off the board and into the abyss below.

"AAHHH!"

Yugi woke and found himself sitting at his desk as he had been when he fell asleep last night.

"Oh… It was all just a dream."

Yugi went about his usual morning routine before he went back to preparing his deck for the task ahead. It wasn't long before he was reminded of how he barely survived his duel with Prince Vlad, and how he only tied with Kaiba last night. He was sure that Atem could have taken both of them. What if he didn't have what it took? He couldn't take any more and needed someone to talk to. He wondered why none of his friends had come by yet. He found his cell phone and called Tea.

"Tea… Tea are you there?"

The voice that answered the phone wasn't Tea's.

"Hello Yugi…"

"Who is this?"

"Ha-ah… Guess."

"… Where is she?"

"No more riddles, here ends the chase, if you want to see any of your friends alive again, come to the following place… Domino Park at 6 o'clock, don't tell anyone where you're going, and you will come alone."

Yugi wasted no time getting back to his deck. He spent the rest of the day thinking of anything that might need to be changed. Finally when it was 5:30 he opened the safe that Michael had bought for him and took out the god cards. He spent a long moment looking at them.

"It's now or never."

Yugi placed the gods in his deck, told his grandpa that we has going to meet the others and didn't know when he would be back, and started racing through the city streets to Domino Park.

The city lights around Domino Park were a lot dimmer than usual, Yugi also noted that the park itself seemed deserted.

"Tea! TEA! Joey! Mai! Michael! Serenity! Duke! Tristan!… Anybody?"

Just then someone tapped Yugi on the shoulder. He turned around and saw that he was face to face with sixteen of Checkmate's goons. Half of them were wearing white armor, the rest were dressed in black.

"Ssshh…" said one of them putting his finger to his lips.

"Where are my friends?" demanded Yugi.

"If you want to see them again, then you're going to come quietly with us. And you're going to need to wear this." said one of them handing him a blindfold.

After Yugi put the blindfold on Checkmate's goons started marching him in one direction until they got into a car. Yugi soon lost track of how long they had been driving. He kept his hand firmly on his deck incase one of Checkmate's goons decided to try something. They had been driving for about thirty minutes when the car stopped.

"Get out the car."

Checkmate's goons started marching Yugi forward again.

"Where the heck are we?"

"You can take off the blindfold now."

At first Yugi thought he had literally gone blind because everything was completely dark. Then a bright spotlight turned on and Yugi saw that he was standing on a giant transparent chess board, down below Yugi saw that there was a really big pool beneath it. Then another light came on and Yugi realized he wasn't alone. Standing a few feet away from him was a man dressed head to toe in body armor that was white, gold, and silver. Underneath the armor he wore a black body glove. He was also wearing a cape that was white on the inside and black on the outside.

"I am Checkmate…"

**(To be continued)**

**New Illustration on deviant art**

**Checkmate!**


	15. Breaking the Ice

"Welcome to my humble abode Yugi. I'm glad you could make it, my guests would have been very disappointed if you hadn't shown up, and I doubt your friends would ever forgive you if you hadn't either."

"Where are they?"

Checkmate snapped his fingers and another spotlight came on. On the side of the board Yugi saw Tea and all the others trapped in a huge glass cage. They were trying to say something but Yugi couldn't hear them.

"GUYS!"

Before Yugi could move a huge steel cage fell from the ceiling and landed on top of him.

"You didn't think I had all your friends kidnapped just so you could come here and take them back for nothing did you?"

"You monster! Let me out!"

"Oh I'll let you out, and your little friends as well… if you can beat me."

Just then Yugi noticed that Duke and Tristan were lying flat on the ground inside the cage.

"What have you done to them?"

"I haven't done anything. They were like that when my men found them. Looks like they had a few too many drinks."

"Drinks? Why would Duke and Tristan be… Oh right."

"Now enough talking, my guests are getting impatient."

"What guests?"

All the lights in the room came on. Yugi saw that there were at least fifty other people in the room sitting at tables. They were all dressed like royalty, but they were each wearing a different kind of mask.

"What is this, a costume party?"

"To ensure everyone's anonymity they are all required to wear masks, and no one here is being addressed by their real name. All you need know is that these very rich and very bad people have come all the way to see if you can be defeated in a duel with so much on the line."

"That's the great Yugi Moto?" asked one of the guests "I thought he was taller."

"There is no way a kid like him could score a girl like the one locked in that cage."

"You people aren't just going to let him kill us, are you?"

"Yugi, they couldn't care less what happens to you or your friends. My guests here have made their livings off the suffering and deaths of others." said Checkmate "And since everyone is here anonymously, there's no harm in me revealing some details."

Checkmate walked over to a table where a man wearing a lion mask was sitting.

"Mr. Cross, you used to be a Roman Catholic Priest, but that was a long time ago. Six years ago he was excommunicated for doing what priests aren't allowed to do with women. Now he runs an underground cult that takes advantage of desperate young ladies, promising them salvation in exchange for money, sexual pleasure, or both."

"That's disgusting."

"Is that a moral judgment Mrs. Spider?" said Checkmate as he walked over to where a woman wearing a spider mask was sitting "You came into money when all your significantly wealthy husbands died under shall we say mysterious circumstances?"

Some of Checkmate's guests started laughing.

"Why is that funny?"

"She said all her husband did was sit around all day, know we know why, they were in their coffins."

"Coffins? I have them cremated, it's cheaper. All expect one…"

"Moving on."

This time Checkmate went over to someone who was wearing a ninja mask.

"Mr. Sam R. I. here is an assassin for hire. As a calling card he leaves a lotus blossom on every victim he kills. Tell me, how many people have you killed?"

"I lost count somewhere after a hundred."

"Ms. Body here runs a human trafficking racket. Mr. Bam is one of the largest drug suppliers in the world. Narcotics, hallucinogens, ice, whatever you want he's got it. Ms. Butterfly is a world famous prostitute who's slept with every rich man under the sun, every rich man that doesn't have STD's that is. Mr. Boom here is a technician for a weapons development company headquartered here in Japan. He spends all day thinking of new ways to protect us from Godzilla."

Checkmate's other guests laughed.

"But he makes a little extra money by selling weapons to both sides of the table… But enough about my guests… I think you're much more interested in my story."

"Oh boy this is going to be enlightening." thought Joey.

"I was born into a world of privilege. I had everything a man could ever want, until I stumbled upon that which vexes all men. For a few brief hours I was the happiest man in the world, but then on that fateful night on the Pacific Ocean… my beautiful bride tossed me over the edge of the ship!"

Yugi noticed that one of Checkmate's guests flinched.

"She had a perfect alibi and inherited all my money, in the meantime my half dead body was washed up on beach somewhere deformed beyond recognition. For the first time had absolutely nothing, I had no money, no home, no identity; I was a John Doe living on the streets! And it was like that for six hellish months. Fortunately for me there was going to be a chess tournament where the grand prize was enough money to get me back on my feet. Chess had been my favorite game since I was little boy, now the only problem was getting there."

"And?"

"Tell me… Can a homeless and penniless man kill a man who lives by himself in his apartment, steal his car and money, and get away with it? Yes. To make a long story short I won the tournament, but it just wasn't enough for a man like me, so I went to Vegas, and there I became addicted to gambling. Can a man who's lost everything get back everything he's lost? Yes. Eventually I was richer than I was before, I never lost my addiction to gambling but soon all the games I played lost their thrill, so I came up with new ways to gamble, and here we are… Oh and one more thing, did I mention the ***** who I used to call honey is sitting in this room right now?"

Mrs. Spider got up and started to run for the door, suddenly…

"BLAM!"

Yugi and his friends were recoiled in horror as Mrs. Spider fell to the floor, but Checkmate and his guests just sat there like this happened every day.

"Bring her here."

Two of Checkmate's pawns dragged Mrs. Spider over to the place on the board where Checkmate was standing. She was still alive.

"You… you… *******!"

"Don't blame me, blame karma."

"I swear… you're a dead man!"

"You're the dead person. See you in Hell honey."

Checkmate pressed a button on his wrist and the board beneath Mrs. Spider opened up. She screamed as she feel into the pool beneath, Yugi and the others were shocked to see some huge fish envelop the woman. In a matter of moments the water was full of blood, but there was no sign of Mrs. Spider, not even bones.

"Well that broke the ice…What was that Michael? We can't hear you."

One of Checkmate's goons made an opening in the cage so they could hear what Yugi's friends were saying.

"What are those?"

"Those are my piranha."

"Piranha? Those things are bigger than a widescreen TV!"

"They're mutated piranha. I would have gotten some sharks, but they were put on the endangered species list and my friends in the shark fin mafia didn't have any to spare, so I got the next best thing."

"Okay… Well, now that you've had your little revenge, can we go home now?" asked Tea.

"Weren't you listening? It doesn't matter that the ***** is dead, I'm addicted to gambling, and so are my friends here. Now we'd like to know if Yugi Moto, the famous King of Games and master of the Egyptian gods can be defeated in a duel where everything is on the line and his opponent uses a deck full of cards that he's never even heard of."

"And why the hell should we go through with this?" asked Mai.

"I'm not giving you a choice in the matter."

"You're sick!"

"Shall I make it more interesting?" asked Checkmate "Tell you what little Yugi, if you win not only will I give you and your friends your freedom, but I will also award you all with eleven million American dollars, one million for each of you, plus and extra three million for little Yugi."

"Why does he get the extra money?"

"Because he's the one who's dueling, and because Joseph, he gave you all the money he won at Duelist Kingdom, which you generously spent on your little sister there."

"Oh… Well I guess that's fair."

"So little Yugi… do we have a duel."

Yugi knew that Checkmate wasn't giving him a choice in the matter, but that's not why he took out his deck and placed it inside his duel disk. When all this began someone threatened the lives of his friends, who mattered more to him than anything else. Since then he had been preparing for that individual, someone who had been playing the people in his life like chess pieces. Now he had finally found his opponent.

"The game ends tonight Checkmate!"

"Splendid…"

Checkmate took out a black and white duel disk and placed it on his arm.

"Remember little Yugi, if you win then you and your friends will leave this place a lot richer, but if not, then you will all be fish food."

The others looked down at the school of giant piranha in the tank below.

"Yugi, if you lose this I'm going to kill you!" said Mai.

"If he loses you won't get the chance, Mrs. Valentine. So my friends, can Yugi Moto beat a duelist like me, who has watched him duel against my pawns and seen all his strategies, who uses cards he's never heard of, and when everything is on the line? I'd put his chances a 10 to 90. Ladies and gentlemen… place your bets."

All at once Checkmate's guests started making bets.

"I'll bet five million dollars that Yugi takes him to the cleaners!"

"Where have you been? Checkmate never loses. Ten million!"

"Fifteen!"

"He may have cards no one has heard of, but Yugi has the god cards! Seventeen million!"

"Are these people crazy?"

"Joey, to these people one million dollars is pocket change." said Michael.

Yugi and Checkmate both activated their duel disks.

"Let's duel!"

**(To be continued)**


	16. White moves first

"Since we're playing my game Yugi, I'll make the first move."

"Fine by me."

Checkmate had said he would be using cards that Yugi didn't even know existed. If Checkmate went first then he might have a better idea of what he was up against.

"I special summon White Pawn in defense mode!"

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 1000)

"And I think I'll also special summon Black Pawn in defense mode as well."

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 1000)

"Now their effects activate. As long as White Pawn is face up on the field all my monsters gain 200 attack points for every monster I have out, and my Black Pawn does the same for their defense points."

(2x ATK: 1400 DEF: 1400)

"I'm not impressed." said Yugi.

"Well in that case I'll activate this spell card, Roulette!"

"I should've guessed he would try something like that."

Checkmate started writing something on a piece of paper.

"What are you doing?"

"It's all part of my card's effect. I write down a number between zero and thirty six and you get to guess what it is three times. If any of your guesses are correct you gain 1000 life points, if not then you lose 1000 life points."

"Just like I thought, he's gambling."

"Michael, does Yugi have a chance?"

"I don't think so Serenity. Even with three guesses his odds of getting the right number are 3/37, I don't like those odds at all."

"Any day now."

"Okay… uh… 12… 25… 32?"

"Oh… so close… but no, the answer is 13."

Checkmate turned the piece of paper over to prove he wasn't lying.

"So sorry."

(Yugi: 3000)

Suddenly Yugi felt a surge of electricity tear through his body.

"Yugi!"

"What the… What the heck was that?"

"I've taken the liberty of electrifying the tiles beneath you Yugi. Every time you lose life points you will receive an electric shock, and I'm doing this because I think my fish deserve a warm meal."

Down below the giant mutant piranha started circling underneath Yugi.

"The duel just started Yugi, and you've already lost one fourth of your life points. You haven't even moved yet."

"You just wait you sick S.O.B!" said Joey "Yugi's going to clean your clocks!"

"We'll see about that Joseph… I end my turn."

"Then it's my move!"

Yugi drew his card.

"I'll place one card face down, and summon Magician's Valkyria in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1800)

"Valkyria, destroy his Black Pawn!"

Yugi's Valkyria raised her staff and blasted Checkmate's Black Pawn into dust.

"And since he's no longer on the field, your White Pawn loses 200 of it's attack points and 400 of it's defense points!"

(ATK: 1200 DEF: 1000)

"A sacrifice that doesn't even phase me."

Since Checkmate was wearing a mask no one could tell he was smiling when he drew his card.

"I'll place two cards face down on the field, then I'll sacrifice my White Pawn to summon my White Bishop!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 2000)

"Great… another chess piece." said Mai.

"I'll bet you a million dollars all his monsters are chess pieces."

"I'll take piece of that!" said one of the guests that was sitting next to the cage.

"Shut up." replied Tea.

"White Bishop, attack Yugi's Valkyria!"

"I don't think so! I activate my face down trap card, Mirror Force! Now not only is your attack negated, but your monster is destroyed!"

"I don't think so."

As the redirected attack flew at him, Checkmate's bishop stretched out his hand and sent the attack right back at Yugi's Valkyria and destroyed her.

(Yugi: 2600)

"What? No way! How did you block my Mirror Force reflection?"

"Simple, I used my bishop's special effect. Once per turn he can negate the activation of one spell or trap card and destroy it."

"Well… I won't be making the same mistake twice. My move!"

Yugi drew his card tried to think of what he could do next, then the answer came to him.

"I activate the spell card Emblem of Dragon Destroyer!"

"Yugi, weren't you listening to what I just said?"

Checkmate's bishop raised his hand and Yugi's card was destroyed.

"I heard you clearly Checkmate. You can only use that trick once per turn."

"So? What are you so happy about?"

"I fooled you. Emblem of Dragon Destroyer was just a decoy. I let you negate it so you couldn't destroy this."

"Well... What is it?"

"I play Spell Economics, as long as this card stays on the field, I don't need to pay life points to use my spell cards. Next I activate my Premature Burial, which I'll use to bring back Valkyria from the grave."

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1800)

"Next I'll summon a second Valkyria from my hand."

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1800)

"When there is one Valkyria on the field you can't attack any other spellcaster, but since I have two in play you won't be able to attack either of them or any other spellcaster I summon, and if the wasn't enough I'll strengthen the Valkyria I just summoned with Mage Power, now she gains 500 attack and defense points for every spell and trap card on my side of the field."

(ATK: 3100 DEF: 3300)

Before Yugi made his move he took into consideration the two face down cards Checkmate had played. They might be traps that could destroy his monsters, but knowing Checkmate he was probably bluffing.

"Valkyria, destroy his White Bishop!"

Yugi's powered up Valkyria blew Checkmate's bishop away.

(Checkmate: 2900)

"Now my second Valkyria will attack you directly!"

(Checkmate: 1300)

"Oh yeah! Now that's what I'm talking about!" said Joey.

"Yugi just took more than half your life points!" said Tea "Put that egg in your shoe and beat it!"

"What?"

Tea noticed that Michael wasn't smiling.

"Come on Michael, this is good news, Yugi's winning."

"Yugi may have just taken more than half Checkmate's life points, but he doesn't seem to care."

"It's probably just another bluff." said Mai.

"Impressive move Yugi, but you're going to have to do better than that if you want to beat me."

Checkmate drew his card.

"I think I'll activate my face down trap card, Russian Roulette!"

A huge holographic revolver appeared and pointed at Checkmate's head.

"What the… What are you doing?"

"Don't worry little Yugi, this card doesn't do anything to you. Now I roll a six-sided die, and if the result is a number between one and five then not only do I get to draw until there are six cards in my hand, but I'll also gain 2000 life points as well. But this card does have one serious drawback, if the number I roll is a six then I lose the duel, just like that."

"You've gotta be kidding me!"

"Darn it, even with that one effect the odds are still in Checkmate's favor!" said Michael.

"Now let's see what fate has in store for me…"

Checkmate took out a six-sided die and rolled it across then floor. The entire room watched as the die stopped with the number six face up.

"AH-HA! Sucks to be you!" said Joey.

"WHAT! YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!" exclaimed Mr. Cross "I BET ON HIM!"

"SO DID I! EIGHT MILLIION DOLLARS!"

"Calm down my friends." said Checkmate "Let's do it again…"

"What?"

"You can't!"

"Actually I can and I will Yugi. I activate my second face down card, Dice Re-Roll! This card let's me negate one dice roll and re-roll it."

"Oh great."

Checkmate walked over and picked up the die.

"Now as I was saying, let's do it again."

As Checkmate rolled the die the chamber on the holographic revolver started to spin. When it stopped the trigger was pulled, but all Yugi heard was a click. The die had landed on four.

"Now that's more like it." said Checkmate as he started drawing cards from his deck.

(Checkmate: 3300)

"Now that I've regained the lead, I think it's time I brought you down another peg. I'll place one card face down, and summon my Black Knight in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1400 DEF: 1200)

"Sorry Checkmate, but since I have two Valkyrias on the field you can't attack either of them, and even if you could that knight of yours doesn't have enough attack points."

"Who said anything about attacking your magicians?"

"What do you mean?"

"You don't know much about chess, do you? Well I've got bad news, good news, and some more bad news. In the game of chess a knight has the unique ability to jump over other pieces, as a result this card has the ability to attack your life points directly."

The Black Knight's horse charged and leapt over Yugi's two Valkyrias, then he took his lance and stabbed Yugi with it. But the pain didn't come from the hologram, it came from the electrified floor beneath him.

"Aghh!"

(Yugi: 1900)

"The good news is that since I used my knight's effect to attack your life points, you only take half the damage. The other bad news is that since my knight did damage to your life points, you need to discard the card at the top of your deck."

"I don't believe it! Just like that Checkmate's back in the lead!"

"Calm down guys, Checkmate may be in the lead, but remember it's never over until the final move is made."

Tea's words hit home and Yugi found the strength to get up.

"You may have gotten back the lead Checkmate but you still left you monster vulnerable to my attacks. Valkyria, attack his Black Knight!"

"You're wrong again Yugi, you've just activated my continuous trap card, Craps!"

"A card about going to the bathroom?"

"No Joey, craps is a game in casinos played with dice." said Mai.

"Oh…"

"From now on whenever either of us tries to attack we'll need to play a quick game of craps. If you win then you may proceed with the attack normally, if not then your attack is negated."

"But I've never played craps before."

"Just roll the dice."

Yugi rolled the pair of dice that Checkmate's goons gave him. The result was four.

"My turn."

Checkmate rolled his dice.

"Lucky seven! I win, and your attack is negated!"

"Err… Alright, Valkyria number two, attack!"

"Here we go again!"

Checkmate rolled an eleven.

"Yo!"

Yugi rolled his dice, they both came up six.

"Ha, twelve! I beat you!"

"Sorry to disappoint you, but rolling a twelve is as bad as rolling snake eyes."

"What? There's no logic to this dice game at all!"

"Your attack is negated, so sorry."

"Err… I'll place one card face down and end my turn."

"Uh guys… Yugi can still win this… right?"

"I don't want to sound pessimistic, but I think Checkmate has the advantage." said Mai.

"Guys, if there's one thing I've learned, it's that you can never count Yugi out as long as he has life points left."

"I hope you're right Joey, because I really don't want to be fish food."

**(To be continued)**

**Due to technical difficulties I don't have the monster cards yet, but I have most of Checkmate's spells and traps**

**Now available on deviantart**

**Roulette**

**Russian Roulette**

**Craps**


	17. Checkmate's Bag of Tricks

Duke and Tristan, who had been unconscious throughout the entire ordeal so far were just now waking up.

"Oh man… I feel so sick."

"Gee, I wonder why." said Tea.

"Tristan, can you say the alphabet backwards?"

"Ah, you'd like that wouldn't you, you pansy!"

"Huh? Tristan, it's me, Joey."

"Joey? Hey, what's up buddy?"

"Yeah, they've definitely had too much to drink."

"So… Where the hell are we, and what's going on?" asked Duke.

"Well to make a long story short, Yugi and Checkmate are dueling for our lives. And if Yugi doesn't win we're going to be fish food for a bunch of hungry mutant piranhas."

"Ah that blows man…"

"Now where were we Yugi? I believe it was my turn. And I think I'll activate the spell card Blackjack!"

"Another gambling card… I should've guessed."

"Yes, and true to its name this card requires us to play a quick game of Blackjack with our cards."

"Wait a minute… How do you play Blackjack with Duel Monster cards?" asked Mai.

"It's actually quite simple Ms. Valentine. First Yugi and I choose an amount of our life points to risk. If you win this little game of Blackjack you gain life points equal to the amount you risk, if not then you lose life points equal to the amount you risked. I myself will risk 3000 life points."

"What? 3000! But if he loses that means he'll have only 300 life points left!"

"I like to live dangerously." replied Checkmate.

"Fine, have it your way." said Yugi "I'll risk only 100."

"Not much of a gambler eh, whatever. Next I roll a six-sided die, and then we need to pick up cards from our decks equal to the result. The levels of all monsters we pick up are added together, magic and spell cards are zero. Whoever's total is closest to twenty one without going over wins."

"Well, I guess that makes since." said Mai.

Checkmate rolled the die, the result was three.

"Alright Yugi, now we both pick up three cards."

Yugi picked up his cards. They were Berfomet, Buster Blader, and Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning.

"Ha! Twenty! Beat that!" said Yugi.

"Very well, I drew Black Bishop, Black Queen, and Black King, for a total of twenty one."

"What?"

"Read em and weep."

(Checkmate: 6300)

(Yugi: 1800)

"Now we both shuffle the cards we picked up back into out decks. Next I'll summon White Knight is attack mode."

(ATK: 1400 DEF: 1200)

"And like his black counterpart, he can attack you life points directly!"

"Don't forget your Craps card! You need to roll before you can attack me."

"Very well."

Yugi rolled his dice, but the result was four.

"Not a good time for a week roll. Now it's my turn."

Checkmate rolled his dice.

"Ha! Snake eyes! You lose that one Checkmate!"

"Err… Black Knight, attack his life points directly! Now roll!"

Yugi rolled ten and Checkmate rolled three.

"Looks like another one for me."

"I've been gambling for years Yugi, and the first thing you need to know is that it doesn't matter how many times you win or lose, all that matters is if you turn a profit, and incase you haven't noticed I'm still in the lead with more than three times as many life points as you."

"I can count Checkmate, just end your turn."

"Fine."

"Since I played a face down card on my last turn, my Mage Power give my Valkyria 500 more attack and defense points."

(ATK: 3600 DEF: 3800)

"And since I just drew a card, I'll activate my Solemn Wishes, so now I gain 500 more life points!"

(Yugi: 2300)

"Next I activate the spell card Raigeki, which destroys every monster on your side of the field!"

Lightening rained down from the sky and destroyed both of Checkmate's knight's.

"Now Valkyria, attack his life points directly!"

Yugi rolled dice, but the result was a four and Checkmate's was an eight.

"Very well, then I'll just attack with my more powerful Valkyria!"

Yugi rolled nine and Checkmate rolled five.

(Checkmate: 2700)

"Oh yeah! Way to even the odds Yug!"

"Now Checkmate, it's your move."

Checkmate drew his card and started laughing.

"Oh what now?" asked Tea.

"I just drew one of my favorite cards."

"Well… What is it?" asked Michael.

"I activate the spell card Four Aces!"

"Oh boy… I don't like the sound of that."

"This card has four effects, one for each ace, but I get to choose which one I want. The ace of spades allows me to destroy one card on the field, the ace of hearts let's me roll a die and gain 500 life points multiplied by the result, the ace of clubs let's me special summon a monster from my graveyard, but I think I'll opt for the ace of diamonds, which let's draw four cards from my deck."

Checkmate drew his four cards.

"How do you like that… I just drew my second Four Aces, this time I choose the ace of spades, and I'll use it to destroy your powered up Valkyria!"

Yugi's Valkyria was blasted by a barrage of spade symbols.

"Finally, I'll summon a monster in defense mode and end my turn."

"Err… Checkmate is not backing down, and I keep using up all the cards in my hand. There's one card that can help me, but I haven't drawn it yet!"

Yugi drew his card.

"Not what I was hoping for, but it will do for now. I activate Dark Magic Curtain! This let's me special summon the Dark Magician from my deck. Normally I'd have to pay half my life points to use this card, but thanks to Spell Economics I don't need to pay any!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2100)

"Ooo… The big scary Dark Magician, whatever am I going to do?"

"You should be scared Checkmate, odds are your face down monster doesn't stand a chance. Dark Magician attack!"

Yugi won the little game of Craps, but the Dark Magician's attack still wasn't working for some reason.

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 3000)

"What were you saying about my White Rook not standing a chance?"

(Yugi: 2300)

"You seem to have forgotten Yugi, I know every card in you deck, but you still haven't seen all of my cards yet. I still have plenty of surprises up my sleeve."

**(To be continued)**

**New cards available on deviantart**

**White Pawn**

**Black Pawn**

**White Bishop**

**Black Knight**

**White Knight**

**White Rook**

**Blackjack**

**Four Aces**


	18. Royal Straight Flush

"I can't take this, we're all gonna die!"

"Will you cool it Tristan? The duel isn't over yet, Yugi can still win this."

"No, we're all gonna be fish food… And it's all your fault!"

"Me? What did I do?" asked Michael.

"If it wasn't for you… you… Serenity wouldn't have lost her virginity! Nothing bad ever happens to virgins, and she wouldn't be in this mess!"

"Uh… Tristan… I am a virgin." said Serenity blushing.

"Serenity is still a virgin? Oh… my… god! That last bottle sent me back in time! Listen Serenity, I know this sounds strange, but you need to believe what I'm about to tell you. One day this pervert comes along and takes advantage of you because you're young and naïve, he steals your virginity, and as a result you get stuck in this death trap just the same as us!"

"Uh Tristan… What the **** are you babbling about?" asked Joey.

Michael himself was looking very upset.

"There's something I'd like to say in response to that, but since there are ladies present I'm going to assume that's the alcohol talking and forget you said that."

"Michael, let me handle this." said Mai "Tristan, listen to me. You haven't gone back in time, okay? And Serenity never lost her virginity, you're just so drunk and so jealous of her relationship with Michael that you think otherwise."

"Oh sure… that's what you want me to think…"

"If when get out of this, we need to plan an intervention for these two." said Joey.

"Intervention?" asked Checkmate "I think you should be planning a funeral. Remember, I only gave Yugi a 10% chance of surviving this little ordeal, and right now I'm in the lead."

"You just wait you big bully! Yugi's going to wipe the floor with you!" said Tea.

"We'll see about that Ms. Gardner, but in the meantime it's my turn, and I activate the spell card Wild Joker! This let's me take one spell or trap card from my graveyard and add it to my hand, and I choose my Blackjack."

"Oh no… This can't be good."

"Shall we play another game Yugi?" said Checkmate as he placed his card on the field.

"Just roll the die."

"Very well…"

Checkmate rolled the die and the result was a two.

"I'll risk 2000 life points."

"And I'll only risk 100." said Yugi.

"Very well, now draw your two cards."

"Alright, the two cards at the top of my deck are the Dark Magician of Chaos and the Archfiend of Gilfer, that's a total of fourteen!"

"I drew my White King and Black King, that's sixteen, sorry…"

(Checkmate: 4700)

(Yugi: 2200)

"You know the drill, now we shuffle all the cards we picked up back into our decks. Next I'll place once card face down and special summon my Black Pawn in defense mode."

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 1000)

"Next I'll sacrifice my Black Pawn to summon my Black Bishop."

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 2000)

"Bishop, destroy his Valkyria!"

(Yugi: 2200)

"Is Checkmate nuts? Why would he summon a monster that is clearly weaker than Yugi's Dark Magician?"

"Let me guess. Unlike your White Bishop that has the ability to negate spell and trap effects, this Bishop can negate either monster effects or attacks."

"Correct Yugi, so if your Dark Magician attacks, he'll only destroy himself."

Yugi drew his card.

"Don't worry, I don't think that will be a problem. Since I just drew a card my Solemn Wishes gives me another 500 life points."

(Yugi: 2700)

"Now I'll activate my Emergency Card Stash, which let's me draw cards from my deck until I have six cards in my hand, and thanks to Solemn Wished I gain 500 more life points."

(Yugi: 3200)

"Next I'll summon the Mystical Elf!"

(ATK: 800 DEF: 2000)

"But that's not all, now I'll activate the spell card Magical Dimension! By sacrificing one spellcaster on my side of the field, I can special summon a spellcaster from my hand, and I choose the Dark Magician Girl!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1700)

"And now Magical Dimensions' second effect kicks in, now I can destroy one monster on the field, and I choose your Black Bishop! Next I'll equip my Dark Magician with Magic Formula, this gives him 700 extra attack points!"

(ATK: 3200)

"Dark Magician, destroy his White Rook!"

"Don't forget my Craps card Yugi, you need to roll before you attack."

"Yeah whatever."

Yugi rolled seven and Checkmate rolled another Snake Eyes.

"Dark Magician, Dark Magic Attack!"

Checkmate's Rook was destroyed.

"Now Dark Magician Girl, attack his life points directly!"

Unfortunately Yugi rolled a five and Checkmate rolled eight, so the Dark Magician Girl's attack was negated.

"Well I will say this for you Yugi, for someone I gave only a 10% chance of surviving this ordeal, you sure are fighting back."

"I'm not going to lose this duel Checkmate, especially when the lives of my friends are on the line!"

"Anyone in particular?"

"What do you mean?"

"I think you know very well what I mean, but it doesn't really matter who you're fighting for, as long as you fight back it will make an interesting show for my guests. Now where we? I believe it was my turn, so I think I'll activate my second Wild Joker, and I think I'll use it to bring back my Four Aces spell card."

"Oh great, it just had to be that one."

"Yes, but I won't use it just yet, first I'll activate my Graceful Charity, this allows me to draw three cards from my deck as long as I discard two."

"What? Why didn't he just use Four Aces to draw four cards instead?"

"Now I'll use my Four Aces and activate the Ace of Clubs, which lets me special summon a monster from my graveyard, and I think I'll summon one of the monsters I just discarded, The White Queen!"

(ATK: 3000 DEF: 2500)

"And since there are now cards in my hand, I'll play my Emergency Card Stash, which as you know will let me draw six cards from my deck. And now I think I'll go and end this duel, by equipping my queen with Axe of Despair!"

(ATK: 4000)

"That's not good."

"White Queen, destroy his Dark Magician!"

Checkmate won the game of Craps and the Dark Magician was destroyed.

(Yugi: 2600)

"But that's not all, when my White Queen destroys a monster in battle, that monster's attack points are subtracted from my opponent's life points, your Dark Magician had 3200 attack points when I destroyed it, so it's game over!"

(Yugi: 400)

"What? This makes no sense! You only had 2600 life points! And I just did 3200 points of damage!"

"Yes you did." replied Yugi "But you seem to have forgotten that my Dark Magician was equipped with Magic Formula when you destroyed him, and when Magic Formula is sent from the field to the graveyard, I gain 1000 life points, so I had 3600 life points when your queen's effect activated."

"Not bad Yugi, but all you've done is delay the inevitable. You only have 400 life points left, and I have 4700!"

"Well in that case I'll just have to close the gap. It's my turn, and since I just drew another card my Solemn Wishes gives me 500 extra life points."

(Yugi: 900)

"Next I'll activate my Pot of Greed, and since I'm draw more cards from my deck, I gain 500 more life points!"

(Yugi: 1400)

"Checkmate keeps taking Yugi's life points and Yugi keeps getting them back. This could conceivably go on forever." said one of the guests who was wearing a crocodile mask.

"Next I'll activate the spell card Monster Reborn which I'll use to special summon my Dark Magician from the graveyard!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2100)

"Why did you bring him back?"

"So I can play this, my Thousand Knives! When the Dark Magician is in play, I can use this spell card to destroy one monster on the field, namely your White Queen!"

After the White Queen was destroyed Yugi tried attacking Checkmate directly with both his magicians, but Yugi lost both rounds of Craps.

"What did you say about closing the gap? Now it's my turn, and I'll activate the trap card Mind Haxorz! By paying a mere 500 life points, I am now allowed to look at all the cards in your hand."

The two cards in Yugi's hands were Exchange and The Tricky Spell 4.

"Next I'll activate the spell card Dead Man's Hand!"

"Why don't I like the sound of that?" asked Joey.

"For those of you that don't know this a Dead Man's Hand is a two-pair poker hand, namely aces and eights."

"Aces and eights? What's so special about that?"

"Nothing really, except it was the five-card-draw hand held by Wild Bill Hickok at the time of his murder on August 2, 1876."

"Wait, what was the fifth card?"

"No one knows, he was shot before he drew it. But that's not important, the point is that since the Dead Man's Hand is so infamous, I decided to have it made into a Duel Monsters card."

"Dare I ask, what does it do?"

"Well, first I declare one type of card; monster, spell, or trap. And for every card Yugi's holding that falls under that category, he takes 300 points of damage. Since I played Mind Haxorz, I know that the only two cards he is holding are spells."

"Oh great."

(Yugi: 800)

"And I think I'll end my turn by summoning a monster in defense mode."

"A face down monster in defense mode… It must be another one of Checkmate's rooks. Neither of my magicians have enough attack power to destroy one of them, and at the moment I can't afford to lose any more life points. If only I could draw one of the two new cards I got today."

Yugi drew his card, but it still wasn't one of the cards he was hoping for.

"Since I just drew a card, my Solemn Wishes gives me 500 more life points!"

(Yugi: 1300)

"Now I'll place one card face down and activate Card Destruction! Now we both need to discard all the cards in our hands and draw new ones."

Checkmate was being forced to discard four cards, but all Yugi had in his hand was his Exchange card, which wouldn't be of much help at the moment. When Yugi drew he still didn't get one of the cards he was looking for.

"Well… At least I gain 500 more life points thanks to my Solemn Wishes."

(Yugi: 1800)

"And since I have a pretty good idea as to what your face down monster is, I'll end my turn by playing the spell card Magical Blast! Now you take damage for every spellcaster monster I have on the field!"

(Checkmate: 3800)

"That's it? That was your best shot? That's the secret grand strategy of the King of Games? You know what Yugi, I don't think I want to play with you anymore."

"You're setting us free?" asked Joey.

"Hell no, I'm going to end this duel and feed you to my fishes."

Checkmate drew his card and started laughing.

"Excellent… It's another one of my favorite spell cards, I activate my Royal Straight Flush!"

"This won't end well." said Michael.

"This spell card destroys every monster on your side of the field, and for each monster that is destroyed by this effect, you take 500 points of damage!"

Until now Yugi had been ignoring the pain from the electrified floor panels that shocked him every time he lost life points. But after the Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl vanished before his eyes screaming in pain he fell to the ground.

(Yugi: 800)

"Yugi!"

"Fortunately for you, on the turn I use my Royal Straight Flush, I need to skip my Battle Phase. But that's just a small favor. Now I'll activate my Mystical Space Typhoon, which I'll use to destroy your Solemn Wishes! Next I'll special summon a White Pawn!"

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 1000)

"Now I'll sacrifice my White Pawn and my face down Black Rook to summon my White King!"

(ATK: 3500 DEF: 3000)

"And I'll also activate Monster Reborn, which I'll use to special summon my Black King!"

(ATK: 3500 DEF: 3000)

"Now I'll activate White King's special ability, once per turn I can remove one monster in my graveyard with White in its name from play, and then my King gains that monster's effects until my next Standby Phase. And I think I'll remove my White Bishop."

"Definitely not good." said Michael.

"Exactly, now if you try to activate a spell card on your next turn, I'll be able to negate it since my King has gained White Bishop's power. And if you think you can defend yourself with another monster than forget it. I also have both my White and Black Queens in my graveyard. If you summon a monster I can remove White Queen from play and destroy it with White King, then you'll take damage equal to that monster's attack points. If I remove Black Queen from play and attack with Black King then you'll take damage equal to your monster's defense points. You have only 800 life points left and no cards in your hand… I give you a 0% chance of surviving the next round."

Yugi still hadn't gotten up from that last attack. There was still smoke emanating from his body.

"Yugi!"

"… Te… Tea…"

"That's right… you're failing her Yugi… you're failing her and all the others. And all my guests that bet on you surviving are going to be very disappointed."

**(To be continued)**

**The duel concludes… and let there be death!**

**New cards on deviantart**

**Black Bishop**

**Black Rook**

**White Queen**

**Black Queen**

**Royal Straight Flush**

**Dead Man's Hand**

**Wild Joker**

**Black King**

**White King**


	19. Karma

"So this is the world's greatest duelist. What joke!"

"We want our money back Checkmate!"

"You promised us the King of Games! Not the King of Lame!"

"The Duel Monsters Champion who defeated Seto Kaiba, Maximillion Pegasus, Marik Ishtar, and so on! Not some ****-*** little punk who ****s with lady luck!"

"We want the master of the gods! Not the master of the frauds!"

"I'm sorry my friends, but this is indeed Yugi Moto and all the bets are locked in. It's not my fault you choose to bet on him."

"I told you, Checkmate always wins."

For a moment Checkmate just stared at Yugi, who was still lying on the floor.

"Tomorrow's headline… Checkmate dethrones the King of Games."

"Guys… I don't want to sound pessimistic, but I have a really bad feeling that we're all gonna die."

"Wait, no were not… at least not all of us… I have a plan!" said Duke.

"Oh I can't wait to hear this one." thought Joey.

"Michael, when we fall into the tank of we need you to swim over and save Yugi, then you need to sacrifice yourself to keep the piranha busy while we break though another panel and make our escape. Most of us get to live, and you will be rewarded in heaven."

"Number one, that is the stupidest self-centered thing I've ever heard. Number two, even if you could break through another panel, Checkmate would just have his goons shoot you the minute you got out, then he'll through your bloody carcasses back into the tank for his pets to eat."

"Do you have a better idea?"

"It's out of our hands! All we can do is put our faith in Yugi!" said Tea.

Yugi couldn't hear what his friends were saying, nor could he hear the raving's of Checkmate's guests. To him it felt like he had left Checkmate's lair altogether. It looked like he was back in the Memory World. He saw Atem dressed as commoner beside Mana. They were watching a group of dancers. Yugi wondered what was going on, then somehow he understood what was going on just by looking at Atem. He was still the Prince, but his father was sick. Mana had brought him here to cheer him up. Atem seemed to be enjoying the show, but his eyes were locked on one of the dancers in particular, and Mana was noticing. The dancer that Atem was looking at looked just like Tea, only with longer hair and darker skin.

"Who is she?"

"That my prince is perhaps the most well known dancer in the kingdom, her name is Teana."

"Why haven't I ever seen her at the palace?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure you with all your royal blood could fix that… unless of course you're too shy."

"What?"

Atem was blushing.

"If that's the case I'd be more than happy to mix up a little potion to solve that problem as well."

Right before Yugi's eyes the scene changed to the palace. This time Atem was watching the dancers as the prince of Egypt, and once again his eyes were locked on Teana, who like the other dancers was dancer better than she had ever done before. They obiviously didn't want to disappoint the Pharaoh's son. Everyone in the court was very impressed with their performance, Yugi also found it quite mesmerizing. Just then the image changed yet again, this time Yugi saw Teana being called to Atem's room where he was waiting for her all alone. Yugi could tell by the look on Atem's face that even though he was the prince and he really wanted something, he wasn't going to force Teana to do anything she didn't want to do, that's why he looked so nervous as he whispered it to her.

"Why… my prince."

When Teana gave her answer Yugi knew it wasn't because she was afraid of Atem, it was because she wanted the same thing.

"My body is your temple." she said wrapping her arms around him.

"I better leave these two alone."

No sooner had the thought came into Yugi's mind that the scene changed yet again. This time he saw Atem standing on the balcony by himself looking at the night sky. He looked sad. Then he saw Teana come onto the balcony with him, it looked like she might have something to make Atem feel better. She whispered something in his ear, Atem looked very surprised, then Teana placed his hand on her stomach.

"That's wonderful." he said.

The scene changed yet again, only this time Yugi saw Atem staring into the eyes of Zorc. Atem wasn't worried about his own life, he wasn't thinking about himself or about Zorc, he was only thinking about the love of his life, the woman who was carrying his unborn child, he was going to stop Zorc from harming them, no matter what the cost. Yugi then watched as he fearlessly performed the ritual that sealed Zorc within the Millennium Ring, and Atem himself was sealed within the Millennium Puzzle. The scene changed one last time, this time Yugi saw Mana and Teana alone, and Teana was holding a little baby in her arms.

"Hello… Earth to Yugi… Are you still in there? No? Does this mean you've given up?"

Yugi slowly started to get to his feet.

"Whoa… He looks pissed off." said Mr. Bam.

"No… In will never… ever… give up… to the likes of you… And as for the rest of you… You want to see power? I'LL SHOW YOU POWER!"

"Well… Look who's a big man." said Ms. Butterfly.

"So you've decided to go down fighting eh? Have it your way Yugi, but it's obvious that nothing you draw is going to help."

"Don't get too cocky Checkmate… There's still one card that can save me."

"I'll bet you two million dollars he doesn't draw it." said Mr. Boom.

"It's a bet."

"I'll take a piece of that."

"Heart of the cards… show me the way."

Yugi drew his card.

"Well… What is it?"

"I activate the spell card, The Wishing Star!"

"The what?"

"It does exist!" exclaimed Michael.

A big bright star appeared above the field.

"Have you forgotten Yugi, until my next Standby Phase my White King has the special effects of my White Bishop. So he can negate one spell card and destroy it."

Checkmate's White King raised his sword and shot a blast of energy at The Wishing Star, but nothing happened.

"What!"

"Sorry Checkmate, but the activation of The Wishing Star cannot be negated. And you can only use that effect once per turn, so you just wasted it."

"Err… What does the blasted thing do anyway?"

"This card actually has three effects, but I get to choose which one to activate. I can gain 500 life points for every card on the field, prevent you from activating any spell or trap cards until my third Standby Phase after this card's activation, but I think I'll use it's last effect and take one card from my deck or graveyard and add it to my hand… And the card I choose is Emergency Card Stash! Since there are no other cards in my hand, I get to draw six cards from my deck."

"Let's just hope those six cards he gets to draw are some pretty darn good ones." said Mai.

After Yugi had drawn his six cards he gave his friends a thumbs up.

"From my hand, I tribute Alpha, Beta, and Gamma the Magnet Warrior's to special summon Valkyrion the Magna Warrior!"

(ATK: 3500 DEF: 3850)

"Err… A lot of good that move is going to do you Yugi, Valkyrion has the exact same attack points as my two kings."

"Sorry Checkmate, but you won't be getting off that easy. I sacrifice Valkyrion!"

"What?"

"By sacrificing Valkyrion, I can special summon Alpha, Beta, and Gamma from the graveyard!"

(ATK: 1400 DEF: 1700) 

(ATK: 1700 DEF: 1600)

(ATK: 1500 DEF: 1800)

"But that makes no sense!" 

"I doesn't?"

"You sacrificed one strong monster to summon three weaker ones, big deal!"

"Oh it's a very big deal… You see… I still haven't normal summoned yet."

"Wait… Is he doing what I think he's doing?" exclaimed Michael.

Yugi just held one of his cards in his hand and smiled.

"Now you're gonna get it!" said Joey.

"You all said you wanted to see what I could do… Well fasten your seatbelts ladies and scumbags, you're in for one hell of ride. Oh but first I want someone to give me a countdown."

"Oh come on… That's ridiculous, you've got to be joking."

"Come on…"

"Fine… Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Happy?"

"Very… I sacrifice Alpha, Beta, and Gamma!"

As Yugi placed his card on the field the entire room was enveloped by a blinding flash of light.

"Here it comes!"

"Almighty protector of the sun and sky, I beg of thee, please heed my cry. Transform thyself from orb of light and bring me victory in this fight. I beseech thee, grace our humble game. But first I shall...call out thy name, **WINGED DRAGON OF RA!**"

When the light faded the cage around Yugi had been melted and Ra was levitating above him.

"That's the Winged Dragon of Ra?" asked Michael "Incredible!"

"When Ra is successfully summoned, its attack and defense points are the sum of the respective attack and defense of the monsters I used to summon it."

(ATK: 4600 DEF: 5100)

Some of Checkmate's guests had lost their masks when Ra was summoned, Checkmate hadn't said a word.

"What's the matter Checkmate? Are you scared? Looks like your guests are, they're so terrified they're actually turning blue in the face."

"Just make your move!"

"As you wish, Winged Dragon of Ra, attack!"

Yugi won the game of Craps and Ra unleashed it's attack.

"I activate my Black King's effect! By removing the Black Bishop in my graveyard from play, my Black King can use his effect to negate one attack and destroy the attacking monster!"

The Black King raised his sword, pointed it at Ra, and fired a burst of energy at it.

"DIE RA DIE!"

But the burst of energy just bounced off Ra and went through the ceiling.

"Sorry Checkmate, but none of my Egyptian gods can be destroyed by monster, spell, or trap effects. If you want to get rid of Ra you're going to need a monster with more attack points."

"Your Egyptian god's may be all but invincible Yugi, but that doesn't mean that you are... You only have 800 life points left, and to add insult to injury, since you have so few life points, you can't use any of Ra's special effects."

"I know how my own card works Checkmate, and I know how yours work as well, and since I can't attack twice in one turn, I think I'll just cripple your two kings."

"You've got nothing!"

"Here's what I've got, I activate the continuous spell card, Pact with the Reaper!"

"The what?"

"Pact with the Reaper? How many rare cards does Yugi have?" asked Michael.

The Grim Reaper appeared on Yugi's side of the field sitting on a throne clutching his scythe. Yugi noticed that a lot of Checkmate's guests and goons were starting to panic. Apparently they were really afraid of death.

"Once per turn I can use Pact with the Reaper's effect to draw cards from my deck until I have six cards in my hand, for the small price of 500 life points each."

"Ha! You're quite the comedian Yugi. If you want to use that effect now you need to pay 3000 life points, and I'm afraid you just can't afford that right now."

"Normally that would be true, but you seem to have forgotten that I still have my Spell Economics card in play, and thanks to this I don't need to pay any life points to use spell cards."

"What?"

"That's right, so now I get to draw six cards from my deck for absolutely nothing!" 

Yugi drew his six cards.

"Next I activate the spell card Soul Release, now I can remove up to five monsters in either of our graveyards from the game, and I remove your White Queen, Black Queen, White Knight, Black Knight, and Black Rook."

"Err… I was hoping I'd beat Yugi before he summoned one of his god cards, but it doesn't make much difference, he only has 800 life points, so I just need to play one more card."

Checkmate drew his card.

"I activate my final Four Aces, and I'll use the Ace of Diamonds which lets me draw four cards from my deck… Next I'll activate my second Roulette!"

"Oh no, not this again." said Serenity.

Checkmate wrote a number on a piece of paper.

"You only have three chances to get it right Yugi, and if you're wrong then you lose the rest of your life points, god card or no god card it'll be game over!"

"I only need one guess Checkmate… It's 13!"

"WHAT!"

"It's obvious given your current situation, you'd pick the last number I'd think to pick, the exact same one you used last time."

Checkmate turned the piece of paper over reluctantly, the number was indeed 13.

"And since I guessed correctly, I believe I now gain 1000 life points instead of losing them."

(Yugi: 1800)

"Err… I'll switch both my kings to defense mode."

(2x DEF: 3000)

"Next I'll special summon my last White Pawn."

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 1000)

"Finally I'll activate the spell card Pawn Defense! By sacrificing my White Pawn, I can now special summon a White Pawn token in defense mode for every open monster card zone on my side of the field!"

(3x ATK: 1000 DEF: 1000)

"Until you destroy every Pawn Token on my side of the field, you can't destroy any of my other monsters."

Yugi drew his card and cracked another smile.

"Summoning more monsters was a bad move. By discarding one card from my hand I can special summon the Tricky!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1200)

"Next I'll activate my face down spell card, Tricky Spell 4! Now by sacrificing The Tricky, I can special summon a Tricky Token for every monster card on your side of the field!"

(4x ATK: 2000 DEF: 1200)

"Now I'll sacrifice three of my Tricky Tokens to summon my second Egyptian god card, **SLIFER THE SKY DRAGON!**"

Slifer appeared on the field beside Ra.

"Slifer and Ra!" exclaimed one of Checkmate's goons "That's nuts!"

"Next I'll activate Double Spell, by discarding one spell card from my hand, I can use one spell card in your graveyard, and the card I choose is Four Aces!"

"Not that one!"

"Yes, that. And I think I'll activate the Ace of Hearts, which as you previously stated will allow me to roll a six-sided die and gain 500 life points equal to the result."

Yugi rolled a die and the result was six.

"Looks like today is my lucky day."

(Yugi: 4800)

"Awesome! Yugi's taken the lead!" said Tea.

"I activate the effect of my Pact with the Reaper, now I can draw until I have six cards in my hand, and don't forget that Slifer's attack and defense points are equal to the number of cards in my hand times 1000."

(ATK: 6000 DEF: 6000)

"Slifer, Ra, attack his pawns!"

Yugi won both rounds of Craps and destroyed two of Checkmate's Pawn tokens.

Checkmate had lost his advantage, and to make matters worse he was now staring down two of the most feared creature's in Duel Monsters.

"Give it up." said Yugi.

"What do you mean, give it up?"

"I guarantee you, if you don't surrender now and let us go, you'll lose on the next turn."

"I am Checkmate! I never surrender! I true gambler doesn't give up when the chips are down, he doesn't stop until he has made a profit!"

"Or in your case gotten his money back." joked Yugi.

"Just you wait! I play my second Blackjack!"

Checkmate rolled his die, the result was a three.

"I risk 2900 life points!"

"I'll risk only 200." replied Yugi.

Checkmate and Yugi both picked up the top three cards from their decks.

"My three cards are White Bishop, Black Knight, and Black Bishop. That give me a total of 14!"

"And I drew… Dark Eradicator Warlock, Gandora Dragon of Destruction, and Chaos Command Magician, for a total of 21!"

"WHAT!"

"He who gambles, lives in shambles!"

(Yugi: 5000)

(Checkmate: 1000)

"I don't believe this! Err… I end my turn."

Yugi drew his card.

"I activate the spell card Graceful Charity, this let's me draw three cards from my deck as long as I discard two, and since I drew it, I'll special summon Watapon."

(ATK: 200 DEF: 300)

"Next I'll summon Breaker the Magical Warrior!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1000)

"When this monster is normal summoned, I can place a spell counter on him, this gives him an additional 300 attack points."

(ATK: 1900)

"But by giving up that spell counter, I can destroy one spell or trap card on your side of the field, and I choose your Craps card!"

(ATK: 1600)

"Last warning Checkmate. Surrender, let us go, and give up your evil ways, or face the consequences of your actions."

"Never! I'll I am Checkmate, the man who gambles with lives! You're just a sad little brat who's lost his imaginary friend!"

"You leave me no other choice, you brought this on yourself Checkmate! First I activate the spell card Magical Stone Excavation, by discarding two cards from my hand I can bring one spell card from my graveyard back to my hand, and I choose Raigeki!"

"No!"

Lightening rained down from the sky and destroyed all of Checkmate's monsters.

"Next I'll activate the spell card Double Summon, this let's me normal summon once more this turn! I sacrifice my last Tricky Token, Watapon, and Breaker the Magical Warrior to summon my third and final Egyptian god card, **OBELISK THE TORMENTOR!**"

The whole room started shaking violently sending Checkmate's guests to and fro.

"WHAT'S HAPPENING? WHAT IS THIS!"

The whole room suddenly felt like it was the inside of freezer. Then Obelisk appeared in-between Slifer and Ra.

(ATK: 4000 DEF: 4000)

"Oh boy… He looks pissed off." said Duke.

"Checkmate and guests, this is for all the people you've killed, for all the lives you've ruined… Obelisk, show them why you're called the Tormentor, **FIST OF FATE!**"

It happened so fast, it happened so slow, oddly enough both statements were true. As Obelisk's mighty fist struck Checkmate he suddenly found himself experiencing every bad thing he had done to the people whose lives he had gambled with. He was being eaten alive by his own piranhas, he was dying of alcohol poisoning, he was overdosing on drugs, he was being mauled by a panther, he was being burned alive, and so on all at the same time. The agonies didn't cease, he wanted to scream but his mouth wouldn't open. And then after what seemed like an eternity, Checkmate was gone.

**(To be concluded)**

**New cards on deviantart**

**Pawn Defense**

**The Wishing Star**

**Pact with the Reaper**


	20. The Game Is Over Bring On The Prizes!

It was the headline of every newspaper.

Yugi Moto Defeats Checkmate!

"Why am I not surprised?" said Kaiba.

"How did he die?" asked Mokuba.

"It says here Checkmate and most of his guests mysteriously suffered from massive heart failure. The ones that didn't die were found lying on the floor crying in a fetal position, all except Yugi and his friend, two of which were found with a dangerous amount of alcohol in their systems, and Yugi himself had suffered from a sever electric shock and collapsed from exhaustion, but he's fine."

"It says here Checkmate used cards that didn't exist, and that he only gave Yugi a 10% chance of surviving the duel."

"Kisara, I've fought Yugi many times. Even you have a 99.99% chance of winning, there's no way you can guarantee victory unless you know what the 0.01 is. Besides, there's only one duelist in the world that can defeat him, and that's me."

"And you'll be working nonstop until you do?"

"No. Right now I'm just going to enjoy being on an island alone with the two of you…Yugi can wait, we have all the time in the world."

It wasn't the first time Yugi woke up in hospital beside his friends.

"Hey guys."

"Way to stick it to em Yug! You gave Checkmate the long overdue whooping he deserved."

"What happened to him, how did we get out of there?"

"Shortly after you attacked him with Obelisk, Checkmate and most of his guests somehow suffered from massive heart failure. Not long after that a whole bunch of cops came bursting in, apparently that Chad person you dueled the other night saw you being taken by Checkmate's goons and called them." 

"And thanks to you, we're all a million dollars richer!"

Yugi had completely forgotten that Checkmate was going to give all of Yugi's friends a million dollars if he won, and Yugi himself would be getting four million.

"Heart failure? You mean I…"

"Don't feel sorry for them Yugi, those people were parasites who made their livings off the suffering and deaths of others." said Michael.

"Besides, that was some of the best dueling I've ever seen you do." said Tea.

"One more thing, where did you get The Wishing Star and the Pact with the Reaper."

"Ebay."

It didn't take long for Serenity to notice the way Tea and Yugi were looking at each other.

"Uh.. Michael, I think we need to go plan Duke and Tristan's intervention."

"Yeah, and I think we need to go help." said Mai.

Yugi and Tea were left alone.

"So I guess we're all a lot richer."

"Thanks to you." said Tea.

"Looks like you've finally got enough money to go learn how to be professional dancer."

"Yugi… I know this is sudden but… When I go to America… I want you to come with me."

"Really? I'd be happy to but… I mean… is it in the cards?"

"You just won four million dollars. Four times as much as what I got."

"I can see the headlines now, the King of Games comes to America with an aspiring dancer. Girlfriend?"

"They'd be correct."

"Yeah they would… Wait a minute… Tea… you mean it?"

"Yes."

Without saying another word Tea kissed Yugi on the lips.

**Epilogue**

**Yugi continued to reign as the King of Games while Tea fulfilled her dream of becoming a professional dancer, eventually they married and had a son whom they named Atem.**

**With the two million dollars they won, Joey and Mai got married and had twins.**

**Kaiba and Kisara married only weeks after the Checkmate incident, eventually they had a son whom (at Kisara's request) they named Tatsuya.**

**Needless to say Michael and Serenity also got married. Michael still designs card for Industrial Illusions, but still does all the house work.**

**Duke and Tristan sobered up long enough to use the money they got to become hosts of their own popular reality talk show "The Love Doctors".**

**And they all lived happily ever.**

**The end**


End file.
